Collinsville Press wins two Excellence in Journalism Awards from SPJ

Avon High wrestling coaches Doug Fink, left, and John McLaughlin celebrate after Isaiah Adams (113) won his second straight Class M championship on Saturday and helped the Falcons win the state title by a half-point over RHAM in February 2023. Our story on that meet won an Excellence in Journalism Award.

The Collinsville Press was recognized by the Connecticut chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists with two awards in the 2023 Excellence in Journalism competition.

Editor and website founder Gerry deSimas, Jr., was recognized with a first-place award and a second-place award for sports news in the hyperlocal division, which features websites that focus on local coverage in specific towns.

He won a first place award for his story on the Avon High wrestling team winning their first state championship since 1995 with a half-point win over RHAM at the 2023 Class M championship meet. An unsportsmanlike penalty call against RHAM during a celebration in the finals opened the door for the Falcons.

The second place award was for a story about Avon’s Isaiah Adams becoming the first Avon High wrestler to win consecutive State Open championships.

It’s the ninth time in the last 12 years that the Collinsville Press has been honored by SPJ with an award.

The 2023 Excellence in Journalism contest received hundreds of entries.

The Connecticut Mirror won the Stephen Collins Public Service award for their story on elder care in Connecticut, a four-part series on issues surrounding Connecticut’s nursing homes and home care industries.

The stories by Jenna Carlesso and Dave Altimari was a “well-researched and compassionately sourced series not only uncovered a current problem, but projected ahead a catastrophic future problem that will no doubt touch every person in the state,” according to the contest judges.

The Theodore Driscoll Award for investigative reporting when to the Connecticut Mirror and the team of Dave Altimari, Jenna Carlesso and Katy Golvala for a series about Connecticut hospitals in peril.

“This series emerged from a deep pool of investigative stories. This series employs a wide range of public records to tell a story of a dysfunctional and problematic health care system. The public records unfold to tell a story with political, sociological and medical implications,” the judges said.

The First Amendment Award went to a team from Hearst CT Media (Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Joshua Eaton and Brian Lockhart) about the city of Bridgeport’s long pattern of ignoring freedom of Information requests. The contest judges said the series “led to both an overdue strengthening of state law and an immediate promise by the city to improve its practices. Follow-up stories documented continuing problems. The response to this well-researched investigation shows the power of the press to be an agent of change and keep government open and accountable to its citizens.”

2023 Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists contest winners