Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher - Better Newspaper Contest
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/222183
Division 5 Best In-Depth Feature or Feature Package/Category 10 First place Cold Case: Muncie Douglas Walker & Keith Roysdon The Star Press (Muncie) Comments: The Star Press does a nice job going through the unsolved murders in the area. The stories are well-written and there are great interviews with family members. Second place The Ultimate Christmas Gift Mark Bennett Tribune-Star (Terre Haute) Comments: Well-written piece about a significant event in the community. Great historical story with a fresh twist. Third place Lessons Learned: Flood killed 3, cost millions in damage Staff The Republic (Columbus) Comments: The Republic (Columbus) captures the aftermath of this disaster with great detail. Best Sports Event Coverage/Category 11 First place Miners denied – again Mike Miller The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Comments: The intense raw emotion that emanates throughout this story is amazing. The heartbreak felt by the coach and players is palpable and really pulls the reader into the story. Second place #PatStrong Sam King Journal & Courier (Lafayette) Comments: The way the writer tied various events into one story worked well. It can be difficult to inject emotion into a game story, but this writer did a great job. Third place 'Flange' shot puts an abrupt end to Minutemen's magical season Anthony Anderson The Elkhart Truth Comments: A very descriptive piece, this game story pulls the reader into what must have been an incredibly exciting finish to an important game. General category comments: This was a very difficult category to judge. Almost every story presented is of top-notch quality, which made choosing between them a task akin to splitting hairs. The winners were able to set themselves apart from their competitors by quickly grabbing the attention of the reader and leading them through a concise and exciting journey with the subjects of the piece. Best Sports News or Feature Coverage Category 12 First place A balloon for Jeremy Mike Miller The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Comments: A moving story beautifully written and compelling from the very first sentence. Exceptionally Well-done. Second place Out of the darkness Jay Heater The Republic (Columbus) Comments: Strong reporting stands out in this piece vividly detailing one young girl's pain. Third place Irish football team lifted spirits of Middlebury teen battling cancer Rachel Terlep The Elkhart Truth Comments: Strong entry in a competitive category. Simply and elegantly told. Page 52 Cold Case: Muncie murder left Eric with more than just scars. The right side of his body is impaired. When he shakes hands, his numb fingers get in the way. But Eric Garrett also carries with him another side effect of that night. He has a thirst for justice. He wants to see the man who killed his mother and permanently injured him tried and jailed. Justice hasn't been served in the Paula Garrett case. The man Eric Garrett believes killed his mother – the man he remembers seeing in his mother's bedroom that night – was freed when the Delaware County prosecutor's office dropped charges a few weeks after the slaying. He still lives in the Muncie area, as do many of the political figures involved in the aborted case more than three decades ago. Before Paula Garrett's murder fell off the front page, the case was marked by political infighting and allegations of bribes and cronyism. yet has come so close, so often. This time the Miners came only inches shy when Zane Hayden's dive forward While his team bunched together at midfield to mourn on fouth-and-1 at the Scecina 1 landed short. a 17-14 overtime loss to Indianapolis Scecina, Linton Hayden went low to coach Steve Weber stood as the left side of the line a broken man only a few feet as quarterback Austin away. His hands clutched at Karazsia threw his arms up his knees, and his eyes were to signal a touchdown only fixed to the ground. to lower them as the line Weber spent a few minutes judge ran onto the field to like that, coming up occasion signal that Hayden missed. The Crusaders stormed to ally to dry the tears that their sideline holding their flowed freely down his cheeks. He needed some time helmets high, while the to wrestle with his emotions, Miners watched another season end without reaching to shake the incredulity that their ultimate goal. came with his program's latest postseason loss. "It tears my guts out," Weber said. Friday was the latest cause of heartbreak for a Linton Scecina began the program that has never overtime period with the ball played in a state title game, and was held to only three yards by the Linton defense. Kicker Luke Frain, who had a 36-yard field goal attempt tipped midway through the fourth quarter, connected from 25 yards out to give the Crusaders a three-point lead. Linton took over and used three handoffs to Koye Kaiser to take the ball from the 10 to the 1. By Douglas Walker & Keith Roysdon The Star Press (Muncie) Eric Garrett's shaved scalp is covered in scars and dimples like a long-played golf ball. He keeps his New York Yankees cap on most of the time, perhaps feeling self-conscious with it off. After 33 years, though, it's likely few who saw him would appreciate the tragedy his scars signify. In March 1979, Garrett, then 4 years old, was brutally attacked by the man who had just walked into his mother's bedroom and beaten her to death. Eric Garrett survived the nine skull fractures he suffered that night. His mother, 22-year-old Paula Garrett, was not as fortunate. Thirty-three years later, the trauma of that night has Miners denied – again By Mike Miller The Herald-Times (Bloomington) A balloon for Jeremy By Mike Miller The Herald-Times (Bloomington) Outside the South football locker room is a red balloon that will not fly away. The balloon, painted among six purple Panthers paws on the concrete walkway that leads to Fred Huff Memorial Field from the locker room, is a newfound part of Eli Eads' pregame routine. At least three more times on Football Fridays this season, Eads will open the door from the locker room and step to the pavement below. He'll kneel to touch the paint with his right hand, bring that same hand to his facemask and point to the evening sky above. The story behind this red balloon is the greatest one Eli Eads can ever tell. But before you learn how this balloon came to be, you must first learn the story of Jeremy Eads and the will to carry on. A boy and his brother Eli's older brother Jeremy loved balloons – red ones, especially. He loved to hold them, to watch them float impossibly high above him, the strings waving to him in the wind. Jeremy loved football, too, but never played the game. He neither walked nor talked. He was bound to a wheelchair, born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a genetic condition afflicting children born without chromosome 4. Those with The Paula Garrett murder is the latest Cold Case: Muncie chapter. After the first series of Cold Case articles appeared in The Star Press in late 2011, Eric Garrett contacted the newspaper and the Muncie Police Department. MPD officials say they consider the case open – not unlike any unsolved homicide – and officers Alexander acknowledged he and Reed were acquainted with Ginther, who died in 2002. For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org. Click on "Contests." When Kaiser fell short on his third attempt, Karazsia immediately signaled to the bench that he wanted his team to go for the win rather than kick the field goal. Weber obliged. "The kids wanted to score, and I think they probably would've hung me up from a For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org. Click on "Contests." Wolf-Hirschhorn experience severe developmental setbacks, seizures and other health problems. Life expectancy for these children varies, but doctors told Mark and Stacie Eads that their first born wouldn't survive through the night of June 20, 1989, the day he was born. Yet he did. Doctors at that point never thought Jeremy was more than a moment away from the end. They told the family he wouldn't make it through the week, or the month. They were continually setting deadlines for him, and For complete story, see www.hspafoundation.org. Click on "Contests."