Central College received three awards in the College Sports Communicators’ Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest, with two of them being national honors. Last year, Central had three entries recognized in the contest. The first award was in the Coach/Administrator Profile category for a feature in Civitas magazine titled “Teachers of the game,” which highlighted faculty members Keith Jones and Russ Goodman, who are also assistant coaches in softball and women’s soccer, respectively.
The second award was for Event Coverage in District 7 and second place nationally. The story, “Believe it! Terrell shot seals Central men’s basketball crown,” covered Central’s title-clinching win at Simpson College in the American Rivers conference. Another award was given for a profile of former Central defensive back Adam Gregg ’06, now Iowa’s lieutenant governor, in the General Feature/Blog category for District 7.
The contest judged entries in the College Division, which includes NCAA Division II and III institutions, NAIA schools, and two-year colleges. District 7 comprises colleges and universities in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
The winning stories were all written by Larry Happel, the athletics communications director at Central for over 45 years. Happel has previously won the CSC Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest National Story of the Year Award in 2017 and has received a total of 18 CSC writing awards, along with two from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. He has also won 22 CSC publication awards and was inducted into the CSC Hall of Fame in 2010. Happel has served as a CSC board member and past D3SIDA president.