Kansas City Star earns multiple APSE Top 10 honors for its coverage of KC sports

The Kansas City Star’s sports coverage again garnered national recognition in the annual Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) contest.

Numerous KC Star/Wichita Eagle sportswriters — including columnists Sam McDowell and Vahe Gregorian, beat reporters Jaylon Thompson and Taylor Eldridge and The Star’s Chiefs-coverage team — were honored with Top 10 recognition in various categories.

Honorees were announced at last week’s APSE Winter Conference.

Thompson received his first APSE Top 10 in his second season covering the Kansas City Royals. His entry included features on how the Royals are using data analytics to develop the pitching staff and going behind the scenes with Bobby Witt Jr.’s family at MLB All-Star Week.

Also included was Thompson’s game story on the Royals’ season-ending loss to the Yankees, and how players found solace in what they believe is a promising future.

McDowell had a hand in multiple awards: He earned individual Top 10s in Column Writing and Short Feature Story and also contributed to The Star’s Top 10 Event Coverage entry.

McDowell’s Short Feature was entitled “How a Texas snowstorm changed history for Patrick Mahomes — and the Chiefs, too.” His Top 10-winning Columns entry included the following pieces:

• A generation of fans poured their hearts into the Chiefs. They earned this payoff

• The Royals and Chiefs should blame themselves, not voters, for stadium tax failure

• Meditation and ‘Success Hotline’: The secret behind Bobby Witt Jr.’s breakthrough

• Harrowing scenes after Chiefs rally shooting, kids front & center, should haunt us all

Gregorian’s Top 10-winning Columns entry included coverage of a variety of important topics:

• How Andy Reid reacted to Travis Kelce’s tantrum and why it reflects Super Bowl repeat

• Chiefs-Steelers Christmas Day game accentuates NFL’s hypocrisy over player safety

• Mike Parson’s startling commutation of Britt Reid sentence is injustice to Ariel Young

• How CTE explains why former KC Chiefs great Jim Tyrer is on cusp of Hall of Fame

The Star’s Top 10-winning Event Coverage entry chronicled the Super Bowl parade shooting around Union Station. The newsroom-wide effort included stories and columns from McDowell, Gregorian, Blair Kerkhoff and Pete Grathoff, as well as additional reporting and photography from many on The Star’s staff.

Those pieces included:

• Twenty-two people shot, including one killed, at Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally

• How Andy Reid comforted frantic teen at Chiefs parade shooting. ‘Please breathe.’

• An American tragedy turns KC Chiefs’ parade into day of mourning in Kansas City

• Teen at Chiefs rally shooting shares how Clyde Edwards-Helaire came to his aid

• Chiefs Super Bowl rally shooting noted around the world, especially by World Cup fans

Several others contributed to the reporting in The Star’s Event Coverage entry, including (but not limited to): Eric Adler, Laura Bauer, Bob Cronkleton, Andrea Klick, Judy Thomas, Natalie Wallington and Michael Wilner.

The Eagle’s Taylor Eldridge, who has placed Top 10 for his coverage of Wichita State as recently as the 2022 awards, entered and placed Top 10 in the High School Beat Writing category, brand new this year.

His entry included the following reports:

• Central Plains League unanimously votes out Wichita Independent, citing ‘ethics’ concerns

• Sterling tennis star finds sense of belonging in journey to win Kansas state title

• ‘More than just a coach’: Karl Brown uses cancer scare to inspire Southeast with love

• ‘Living the dream’ in small-town Kansas: Cunningham basks in 1st basketball state title

Within the industry, the annual APSE awards are considered by many to be sports journalism’s equivalent of the Emmys.

Entries for the 2024 contest came from work produced from Jan. 1, 2024 to Dec. 31., 2024, and were judged by sports editors and writers from around the country.