By TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The role of the sports information office has become more diverse over the years as new technologies and methods for disseminating information emerge.
The goal has always been the same – find the best way to get the information out to as wide of an audience as possible and tell the story of the University and its student-athletes.
And while social media and video have become valuable tools in spreading the message, writing is still one of the most essential tools of the trade. With that in mind, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) honor some of the top writers in the field each year with the Fred Stabley, Sr. Writing Contest.
After the votes were tabulated and the winners announced on Friday, Tennessee Tech came home with a district nod as Thomas Corhern took the District 4 top spot in Event Coverage in his coverage of the NCAA awarding Barry Wilmore with its highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award. (Click here to read winning entry)
District 4 includes colleges and universities on all levels in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.
District winners are selected in seven different categories – Athlete Profile, Coach/Administration/Historical Feature, Event Coverage, General Feature, Blog/Interview, Story with Staff-Created Video and Season Recap/Preview – then the district-winning stories from all eight districts become the national nominees.
Corhern isn't the only Ohio Valley Conference-based recipient as Austin Peay's Colby Wilson earned top district honors in Coach/Administration/Historical Feature and Blog/Interview.
The award is Tech's first in the Fred Stabley, Sr. Writing Contest since 2012 when Kate Nicewicz won a national honor for her feature on football player Drew Hixon and his recovery leading up to receiving his master's degree.
Corhern is in his third year back at Tennessee Tech following a 10-year run as the assistant sports editor for the Cookeville Herald-Citizen. A 2005 graduate of Tennessee Tech, Corhern was also honored on the sports information level in 2018 by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association with a second-place finish in Best Feature Writer. As a member of the Herald-Citizen staff, Corhern earned 11 first-place honors from the TSWA and three runner-up honors for the organization's Gary Lundy Writer of the Year award.
The award program is named after Fred Stabley, Sr., who was a long-time sports information director at Michigan State. The press box at Spartan Stadium is named after him and he was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1969 and the Michigan State Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.