Columbia Missourian Sports Section, Two Students Score Big at APSE

Greg Bowers Newspaper Journalism Faculty

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Associated Press Sports Editors Columbia Missourian Missouri Football Missouri Lacrosse A Question of Acceptance Willy-Mo

A Season to Remember

UPDATE April 3, 2008: Junior Andrew Astleford's story "A Question of Acceptance" was ranked third nationally in explanatory reporting in the final rankings of the Associated Press Sports Editors Best of Writing 2007 contest.

Columbia, Mo. (March 7, 2008) -- For the second year in a row, the Columbia Missourian sports desk brought home top awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) contest. This year, the paper also added two individual awards to its collection.

Andrew Astleford	Jeff Birnbaum
A Question of Acceptance

APSE named the Missourian as one of the top 20 special sections for "A Season to Remember," a special look back at the Missouri Tigers' 2007 football season and Big XII North conference championship. Missouri Journalism senior Jeff Birnbaum's story "Willy-Mo" was named as one of the top 10 features, and junior Andrew Astleford's story "A Question of Acceptance" was named as one of the top 10 explanatory pieces. The Missourian, a daily city newspaper that serves as a working lab for students, competed in the 40,000 circulation and under division in the contest, which lists winners without order. Stories will be ranked later in the writing contests.

Greg Bowers, assistant professor of newspaper journalism and Columbia Missourian sports editor, said more than 220 papers in the United States competed in the Missourian's category, making the contest fierce.

"It's always nice to have your work recognized," he said. "For the students, to have their work recognized in a contest where they competed against professionals, well, that's particularly nice."

Birnbaum's article featured Missouri Football safety William Moore, more affectionately known as Willy-Mo. The article described the different sides of Moore's life that he doesn't often show as a football player, such as the tuba skills he picked up in high school.

"The article allowed me to build such a strong rapport with Willy," Birnbaum said. "It allowed me to learn information about him that nobody else had really known. It showed me that if I can build that kind of rapport with sources, then I can get that sort of information from them and make them feel comfortable enough to talk about their families and struggles."

Astleford's article attempted to see if an openly gay male coach could succeed in leading a team of predominantly straight men on a prominent stage. Astleford said the story came about after the dismissal of former Missouri Lacrosse coach Kyle Hawkins became a national story.

"This is easily one of the most rewarding projects I have ever completed," Astleford said.

Birnbaum said winning the award was extremely gratifying and humbling on personal and professional levels.

"My editor isn't one to give out compliments lightly," Birnbaum said. "So when he gave me a handshake, it was the most rewarding part."

Bowers said the APSE awards are a rare collegiate achievement and will help both students in the job hunt.

"I'm very proud of these two guys and also of the team that worked on our special section," he said. "I'm thrilled to see them recognized. When the awards were announced, there were some happy people bouncing around the sports desk."

Related

March 5, 2007: Columbia Missourian Sports Section Wins National Award The Columbia Missourian sports staff scored a national award from the Associated Press Sports Editors' (APSE) annual contest, which took place Feb. 26-28 in Long Beach, Calif. APSE named the Columbia Missourian one of the top 20 Sunday sports sections in the country among papers with a circulation of less than 40,000. [More]

Feb. 27, 2007: Four Missouri Journalism Students Win Scholarships in Hearst Foundation Journalism Competition Four Missouri Journalism students recently received top honors from two Hearst Journalism Awards competitions. Seniors Ben Fredman and John Tully won first and ninth places, respectively, in the news/sports photojournalism competition. Senior Jenifer Langosch took first place in the sportswriting competition while senior Doug Meigs earned seventh. [More]

Sept. 26, 2006: Journalism Students Compete With Industry Professionals - And Win The Columbia Missourian brought home 36 awards from the Missouri Press Association's Annual Better Newspaper Contest. The Missourian garnered 13 first-place finishes in a variety of categories, including content, design, photography, and beat reports such as religion, sports, rural life, and business. A first-place award in the General Excellence category highlighted the Missourian's performance, which also included several second place, third place and honorable mention awards. In 2005, the Missourian won 27 awards. [More]

Aug. 29, 2006: Special Section of Columbia Missourian Receives 1st Place Award A Columbia Missourian newspaper special section titled "Connections-How mid-Missourians stay plugged in to a world ruled by technology" received the first place award at the Inland Press 2006 Newspaper Special Sections & New Products/New Revenue contest. The winning entry was chosen from more than 600 entries submitted by 80 different newspapers across the nation. [More]

Oct. 27, 2005: Columbia Missourian Wins 27 Awards in 2005 Better Newspapers Contest The Columbia Missourian, the Missouri School of Journalism's working newspaper lab for students in news-editorial, design, information graphics and photojournalism, took home 27 awards in the 2005 Missouri Press Foundation's Better Newspapers contest. Student reporters and photographers won the awards in 19 categories for daily newspapers, competing mainly in the small newspaper category. A highlight for the Missourian was sweeping the top three places in the Class 1 "Best Sports Feature Story" and "Best Investigative Reporting" categories. [More]

April 2, 2004: Journalism Students and Faculty Create New Sunday Prototype for the Columbia Missourian The opportunity to write for a daily community newspaper was one of the reasons Cristian Lupsa selected the Missouri School of Journalism for his graduate studies. What he did not anticipate was the opportunity to develop a new publication. [More]