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IndyStar takes two firsts in APSE contest

nat newell, indianapolis star
·1 min read
Tyson Delaney, 8, cries after the Indy Steelers' 8u team's overtime loss in the championship game against the City Colts on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2018. "You played your hearts out, keep those heads up," said coach Donnell Hamilton. The game was moved from Arsenal Tech High School to Frederick Douglass Park due to a fight between parents where gunshots were fired. The team will continue on in the spring with a new season. Hamilton started the Indy Steelers in 2005 with the aim to keep kids in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood on a positive path. Hamilton, who graduated from Broad Ripple High School, lost his full-ride college scholarship to Western Kentucky after getting caught up in an incident with his friends where guns were in the car. Hamilton, who was coming into his junior year as a team captain, had to serve time in prison. He would not graduate. "I done been through what you been through. Your struggle is familiar for me," he said, relating to the kids on his team. "So, going through my struggle, getting out of my struggle and becoming more positive in my life, that's what turned me into what I am today. A beautiful struggle."

IndyStar's Dana Hunsinger Benbow and Mykal McEldowney took firsts in the Associated Press Sports Editors 2021 contest.

McEldowney topped the Division B Feature Photo category for his shot of Tyson Delaney, a member of the Indy Steelers' 8u football team. Hunsinger Benbow took first in Division B Breaking News for her piece on the bullying and mental abuse allegations inside the Purdue-Fort Wayne women's basketball program. Each will be presented with a plaque at the 2022 APSE Summer Conference banquet in Indianapolis on June 18.

IndyStar placed in the top 10 in eight writing and photo categories and all three section categories. IndyStar was one of four sites to win an APSE Grand Slam -- finishing in the top 10 of Daily or Sunday, Digital, Long Features and Projects -- joining the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Raleigh News and Observer. For the sixth consecutive year, IndyStar earned top 10 honors for our Daily and Sunday sections, and website; the only media organization in the country that can say that.

Here are the rest of our award winners:

Event Coverage: Nathan Brown, Gregg Doyel, Scott Horner, Hunsinger Benbow, Clark Wade, 2nd; Action Photo: Grace Hollars, 5th; Project: Brown, Doyel, Hunsinger Benbow, Zach Osterman and Shari Rudavsky, 6th; Long Feature: Jim Ayello, 6th; Breaking News: Matthew VanTryon, 8th; Explanatory: Hunsinger Benbow, 10th.

Cathedral's Michael Page (22) loses control of the ball while sliding in the corner of the end zone Friday, August 20, 2021, at Westfield High School. Cathedral defeated Westfield, 14-0.
Cathedral's Michael Page (22) loses control of the ball while sliding in the corner of the end zone Friday, August 20, 2021, at Westfield High School. Cathedral defeated Westfield, 14-0.

Contact IndyStar Deputy Sports Editor Nat Newell at (317) 444-6182 or nat.newell@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NatJNewell.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyStar takes two firsts in APSE contest