Players surround pitcher Rick Lafleur on the mound at Muzzy Field in Bristol after Canton beat Terryville to advance to the 1986 Class S championship game.
The Collinsville Press was recognized by the Connecticut chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists with two awards in the 2025 Excellence in Journalism competition.
Editor and website founder Gerry deSimas, Jr., was recognized with a first-place award for sports features and a third place award for sports commentary.
in the hyperlocal division, which features websites that focus on local coverage in specific towns.
He won a first place award in sports feature in Division C, which consists primarily of hyperlocal websites and small publications that focus on local coverage in specific towns, for his look back at the state championship won the Canton High baseball team in 1986 – a team that was the lowest seed in the Class S state tournament and had one player pitch every inning of every state tournament game.
A sellout crowd of 9,170 filled the Mohegan Sun Arena for game 3 of the WNBA championship series in 2019.
He earned a third place award for sports commentary in Division B, which includes mid-size publications around the state, for his column about the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun proposed move out of Connecticut to Boston, which was eventually rejected by the league.
It’s the 11th time in the last 14 years that the Collinsville Press has been honored by SPJ with an award.
The 2025 Excellence in Journalism contest received hundreds of entries.
The Stephen A. Collins Public Service Award, for a story or a series of stories that have a significant impact in the public interest, went to Hearst Media Connecticut staff for their story about no place for residents to sleep, highlighting the challenges of being homeless in Connecticut.
The Heart Media team in Connecticut also won the Theodore Driscoll award for investigative reporting for the same series.
The First Amendment Award went to the Connecticut Mirror and reporters Dave Altimari and Ginny Monk for their series on towing companies in Connecticut with ProPublica called On The Hook. This series of stories also won a Pulitzer Prize.
Youth Baseball
2026 District 6 Little League tournaments and results
High School
2026 NCCC spring tournaments
