The Marion Star's Rob McCurdy named OPSWA Writer of the Year for third straight year

• McCurdy was named Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association Division II-III Writer of the Year for 2023.
• It is the seventh time McCurdy has been named an OPSWA Writer of the Year since his return to The Star in 2016.

COLUMBUS — For the third year in a row, The Marion Star's Rob McCurdy was named the top sportswriter in the state in his division.

McCurdy was named Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association Division II-III Writer of the Year for 2023 as judged by his OPSWA peers. Divisions II and III were combined, and it features daily news outlets with circulations under 10,000.

It is the seventh time McCurdy has been named an OPSWA Writer of the Year since his return to The Star in 2016, and it is his 11th OPSWA Writer of the Year honor. He is a 13-time sportswriter of the year in Ohio spanning a career that started in 1990.

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Sportswriters in the OPSWA contest were judged on a compilation of submissions in four categories. McCurdy won first-place for news stories and was a runner-up in game stories, features and columns.

His news stories were about high school football coaching hires at River Valley and Pleasant and the Greg Swepston Memorial youth baseball and softball clinics.

His columns centered on the emergence of girls wrestling, Highland's Juliette Laracuente-Huebner's record-setting state track performances and Mount Gilead's cross country run to a state runner-up spot.

His game stories were on Laracuente-Huebner's sweep to four state championships in track, the final day of wrestling at the state tournament and a wild football finish between River Valley and Highland.

His feature stories included pieces on Marion Harding Athletic Hall of Fame inductees and twins Shawn and Shawnta' Dyer and their relationship, the friendship between Marion County girls wrestling pioneers Lila Mencer and Nya Miller, and the incredible comeback from a devastating knee injury by North Union football player Gavin Craft.

Fellow Gannett writer Matt Horn of the Fremont News-Messenger was the runner-up behind McCurdy in Divisions II-III.

In Division I for daily outlets with more than 10,000 circulation plus websites, Jeff Gilbert of the Dayton Daily News was the writer of the year with Gannett's Jake Furr of the Mansfield News Journal ending as runner-up. Todd Stumpf of the Medina Weekly was writer of the year in Division IV for non-daily newspapers and specialty publications, and Derrick Webb of the Southern Ohio Sports Authority was the runner-up.

The OPSWA has a membership of 218. The organization was founded in 1972 as a support system for sportswriters who focused primarily on high school coverage across the state. Besides the annual writing contest and meeting, the OPSWA also recognizes its past greats of prep sports coverage through its hall of fame that dates back to the 1980s.

In recent years, OPSWA has taken over organizing all-district and all-state honors for football and boys and girls basketball as well as naming Mr. Football, Mr. Basketball and Ms. Basketball.

More on the organization can be found at OHSAA.org/news/OPSWA.

rmccurdy@gannett.com

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