Connecticut Wrestling Online was recognized by the Connecticut chapter of the Society of Professional Journalism with a 2021 Excellence in Journalism award.
Editor and website founder Gerry deSimas, Jr., was recognized with a second place award for sports feature in the Regional B division, which includes smaller newspapers and larger websites from around the state.
His story on Connecticut official Nick Grosso and his preparations to officiate at the NCAA Division I national championships was recognized.
There was a time when Grosso could be seen practicing his skills as a wrestling official while collecting trash in the city of Bridgeport. Before he became a supervisor in Bridgeport’s Public Facilities Sanitation Division, Grosso used to hang off the back of a truck that collects trash on city streets.
Grosso would leap off the truck and crisply practice one of the 30 signals he might use in a wrestling match. And he would do it again. And again. And again.
DeSimas also won a first place award and a pair of second place awards for stories at Collinsville Press.com in the sports news and sports feature categories.
The 2021 Excellence in Journalism contest received hundreds of entries. The three biggest awards went to Good Morning Wilton website and the Hearst Connecticut Media group.
Good Morning Wilton was honored with the First Amendment Award for their coverage of 2021 municipal elections in Wilton entitled, “A free press, a fair election.”
Hearst Connecticut Media won the Stephen A. Collins Public Service Award for a series of stories (Lost to abuse) that focused on domestic violence in Connecticut. Hearst Connecticut Media also won the Theodore Driscoll Award for Investigative Reporting for their investigation (Policing the police) on how police misconduct is handled internally by law enforcement agencies in Connecticut.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes eight daily newspapers, including the Connecticut Post, New Haven Register, Stamford Advocate and Danbury News Times, more than a dozen weekly publications along with the CTInsider.com website and Connecticut Magazine.
2021 Excellence in Journalism contest winners
