Collins, Whitley Take National Honors in CoSIDA Writing Contest

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Two pieces of original content produced by Texas A&M Athletics Communications earned Best in the Nation honors in the Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest, which is sponsored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
 
Written by third-year assistant director Brandon Collins, "Radar," the story of the life and times of longtime athletics trainer Mike "Radar" Ricke, won national honors in the Coach/Administrator Profile category.
 
Collins' feature on Ricke, who retired after 42 years of service in 2021, contained memories and anecdotes from a lifetime of service to a multitude of Texas A&M student-athletes and head coaches, including Aggie legends Shelby Metcalf, Tom Chandler, Mark Johnson, Jackie Sherrill, R.C. Slocum, and Gary Blair.
 
Athletics Communiciations student-assistant Nick Whitley, a senior majoring in political science from Dallas, Texas, earned national honors in the Student Submitted category for his well-researched and compelling retrospective on tumultuous 2020-21 school year: "Texas A&M's Path to Prominence Through Covid, SnowVid and an Ever-Changing World."
 
Centered around a long interview with Director of Athletics Ross Bjork, Whitley wove the story of Texas A&M's athletics successes while traversing a school year that included a global pandemic, a nation dealing with racial unrest after the murder of George Floyd, and a state paralyzed by a historic winter weather event.  
 
Collins also earned Best in Region honors with his story on the 10-year anniversary of the Aggies' 2011 NCAA Championship in women's basketball: "This Gallant Group."
 
A total of 387 entries were submitted in CoSIDA's 2021-22 Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest. Each category was first judged on the Regional level, with the winners then advancing to National consideration. All Regional winners and runner-ups will be receiving certificates. The National Story of the Year winner, as well as all category National winners, will be receiving plaques while National runner-ups will also receive certificates.
 
Here is the breakdown of submissions for the eight writing categories:
Athlete Profile – 77
Coach/Administrator Profile – 43
Event Coverage – 66
General Feature/Blog – 79
Historical Feature – 46
Season Recap/Preview – 47
Social Justice/Diversity & Inclusion – 24
Student Submissions – 5
 
Judging criteria was based on a point system utilized in these four areas:                                  
Writing Style/Creativity (1-20 points)
Flow/Organization (1-15 points)
Opening/Closing (1-10 points)
Grammar/Punctuation (1-5 points) 
 
A total of 16 Stabley Committee members as well as an additional 28 CoSIDA members served as Regional judges in the contest.
 
A five-member panel served as National judges.  
 
Members of the 2021-22 Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest Committee were:
Jeffrey Bernstein* (Chairman, NYU); Mike Falk* (Co-Chair, Muhlenberg College); Barry Beal (The College of New Jersey); Joel Carlson (University of Montana); Joe DiBari (Fordham University), Murray Evans (Oklahoma Christian University); Lance Franey* (University of Redlands); Joe Giustina* (Lycoming College); Emily Loux (Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference); Paul Marboe (Penn State University); Andrew Mindemann (Covenant College); Andrew Roberts (Southwestern Athletic Conference); Greg Royce (Goucher College); Steve Sheridan (Union College); Lenn Skoros (Hofstra University); Maura Vizza* (Moraine Valley Community College); Drew Wilson (Averett University).
 
*served as a National judge
**Former committee member Joshua Cornwall (Agnes Scott College) is served as awards coordinator.