The Collinsville Press was recognized by the Connecticut chapter of the Society of Professional Journalism with three awards in the 2021 Excellence in Journalism competition.
Editor and website founder Gerry deSimas, Jr., was recognized with a first place award for sports news in the hyperlocal division, which features websites that focus on local coverage, for his story on the Avon High football team winning a Central Connecticut Conference Tier 4 title last fall to cap off a four-year journey that saw the program struggle to field a team in 2018.
He also earned a second place award for sports news for his story on the Avon American Legion baseball team winning their first state championship last August and a second place award for sports feature for his piece on the five overtime win by the Newington High boys hockey team in February 2021 in the CCC South tournament.
It’s the seventh time in the last 10 years that the Collinsville Press has been honored by SPJ with an award.
The 2021 Excellence in Journalism contest received hundreds of entries. The three biggest awards went to Good Morning Wilton website and the Hearst Connecticut Media group.
Good Morning Wilton was honored with the First Amendment Award for their coverage of 2021 municipal elections in Wilton entitled, “A free press, a fair election.”
Hearst Connecticut Media won the Stephen A. Collins Public Service Award for a series of stories (Lost to abuse) that focused on domestic violence in Connecticut. Hearst Connecticut Media also won the Theodore Driscoll Award for Investigative Reporting for their investigation (Policing the police) on how police misconduct is handled internally by law enforcement agencies in Connecticut.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes eight daily newspapers, including the Connecticut Post, New Haven Register, Stamford Advocate and Danbury News Times, more than a dozen weekly publications along with the CTInsider.com website and Connecticut Magazine.
