Schuckman, Muddy River Sports staff receives honors in APSE national contest

QUINCY — The Muddy River Sports staff received three honors in the Associated Press Sports Editors national contest for writing, photography and content production.

Editor Matt Schuckman received a top-10 recognition in column writing and an excellence in video distinction for “Schuck on a Truck,” while the staff received a top-10 honor in the digital category during judging that took place last week at the APSE winter conference.

Official place finishes will be announced by the APSE contest chair at a later date. There were 178 newspapers and online outlets across four circulation divisions that submitted entries in the annual contest.

This is the third consecutive year and fourth overall Schuckman has been honored for his column writing. This is the seventh consecutive year he has been honored in a writing category, and he has earned 13 APSE top-10 honors in his Hall of Fame career, including eight as editor of Muddy River Sports.

The four columns he was judged on were:

• Truth allows Holzgrafe to bring bright smile, effervescent personality back to life;

• Young golfers’ joy of making putts is something we should all embrace;

• While watching MLB Draft, Palmyra’s Kroeger realizes ‘Holy cow, this is going to happen’;

• ‘Broken’ IHSA system needs fixing, but finding right solution remains hardest part.

In the digital category, newspapers and online organizations were judged on published examples of digital work such as videos, photos, podcasts, interactive elements, etc., as well as live judging of their website.

The published work Muddy River Sports was judged on included an episode of the Muddy Night Lights football show, the episode of “Schuck on a Truck” featuring Jeff Jarrett talking about the Quincy Baseball Club, a photo gallery from the Muddy River Showcase and the preview of the 100th Monroe City Tournament.

This is the second digital award Muddy River Sports has earned, also getting recognized in the 2021 contest.

Judges of the digital category also were allowed to award up to five “Excellence in video” honors in each circulation division. Three videos were honored in Division D, including “Schuck on a Truck,” the series in which Schuckman conducts interviews sitting on the tailgate of his pickup.

Muddy River Sports launched in August 2021 and has received 11 APSE awards in the past four years combined.