By TOBY CARRIG
Southeast Missourian

In Denver, it's déjà vu all over again.

Scott Monserud has been in this position before, succeeding Kevin Dale in a sports editor's post. The last time was 1998 in Fort Worth, Texas, when Dale left the Star-Telegram to accept a position at another newspaper. This time, Monserud can expect Dale to drop in on the sports department and grab material for the Denver Post's Sunday edition.

Dale became the Post's assistant managing editor for Sundays on July 10, when Monserud moved up from senior deputy sports editor to sports editor. Dale had been the AME for sports at the Post for six years after serving a year as the sports cover story editor for USA Today. One of Dale's early hires in Denver was Monserud, who came aboard in 2001 as the Sunday editor for sports, then became deputy editor and then senior deputy editor.

"He was my deputy in Fort Worth," Dale said, "and I've always said I'm not sure I would know how to put out a sports section if Scott wasn't with me."

Added Monserud: "I think we work well together. We both like a lot of enterprise, and we're always aggressive about hard news stories behind the stories in sports, explanatory stories."

The Denver Post does not have a Saturday edition as part of its joint operating agreement with the Rocky Mountain News, which does not have a Sunday edition. Each paper circulates about 255,000 editions Monday through Friday, with the Rocky Mountain News selling 552,000 on Saturdays and the Post a little more than 700,000 on Sundays, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation data.

Dale, who said he has gone back and forth between news and sports throughout his journalism career, will have the chance to work with all the editorial departments with a focus "on coming up with the best four or five stories that the staff can produce." That undoubtedly will include some sports.

"Denver is a great sports town, and readers like sports on the front page," Dale said. "We'll showcase it, but not all the time."

Monserud, who also was sports editor at the Dallas Times Herald before joining the staff at Fort Worth, wants the Post's sports section to continue on the path that Dale has laid out.

"Under Kevin's leadership, we've made a lot of strides and really shown the way here locally," Monserud said. "I think we've had fun up here. I want to keep improving, like we all do in this game. I'm sure I have some philosophies that are different. We want to continue to put out a good section and hopefully get better."

Boston Globe: Chris Snow, the Red Sox beat writer, resigned to take a position with the Minnesota Wild as director of hockey operations. Gordon Edes, the Globe's national baseball writer, assumed the duties of the beat. Nick Cafardo, another former Red Sox beat reporter for the Globe, became the Globe's national writer. ... Mike Reiss joined the sports staff from the Globe's zoned editions and is working with Jerome Solomon to cover the Patriots. Reiss covered the western suburbs but also was involved in the sports section's Patriots coverage. He will continue to write the Patriots blog for boston.com. ... Senior assistant sports editor Gregory Lee, who is in charge of the Sunday sports section, was named the sports section's online editor as part of the Globe's move to integrate the newspaper staff and boston.com.

Home News Tribune (East Brunswick, N.J.): Gene Racz, copy editor, moved to news as a county reporter. Jim Green was hired from the Princeton Packet weekly newspapers to replace him.

The News Journal (Wilmington, Del.): Hired Cecily Cairns, copy editor, from the Centre Daily Times.

Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger: Promoted Annette Vazquez to assistant sports editor in charge of the Sunday paper and all design issues.

The Lynchburg News & Advance: Copy editor/designer Cindy Wendt resigned to take the same position at the Roanoke Times. Wendt had handled the section duties on Sundays and Mondays.

Newport News Daily Press: Michael C. Wright resigned to accept a job with the Florida Times-Union. Wright will be one of the reporters covering the NFL's Jaguars.

The Roanoke Times: Howard Wimmer, a copy editor, moved to the news copy desk. He was replaced by Cindy Wendt from the Lynchburg News & Advance.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: Ralph N. Paulk joined the staff and is working with Jill Erwin to form the paper's NASCAR coverage team. Paulk, like Erwin, also will work some desk shifts.

Miami Herald: Promoted Manny Navarro from Miami-Dade high schools reporter to preps enterprise/University of Miami basketball/online reporter. ... Promoted Andre C. Fernandez from full-time clerk to Miami-Dade high schools reporter. ... Named copy editor Edwin Martin to the position of sports online editor.

Florida Times-Union: Columnist Mike Freeman resigned to become national columnist for cbssportsline.com. ... Paris Moulden joined the staff as a sports copy editor/designer. She previously worked at the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail and Biloxi (Miss.) Sun-Herald.

Memphis Commercial Appeal: Gary Parrish, men's basketball writer, resigned to become national college basketball writer for cbssportsline.com.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: Hired John Pitts as sports editor. Pitts was a designer/copy editor at the Florence (Ala.) Times-Daily.

Palm Beach Post: Hired Brandt Merritt as a copy editor. Merritt was a 2005 Dow Jones copy editing intern at the Post.

Tallahassee Democrat: Ike Morgan, who was senior editor over the universal copy desk, returned to the sports department as the sports editor. Morgan is running the daily operations of the department. Executive sports editor Randy Beard is taking on more column and enterprise-writing duties. ... Doug Blackburn joined the staff as assistant sports editor. Blackburn is a former sports editor and most recently was a features reporter with the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union.

Macon (Ga.) Telegraph: Hired Daniel Shirley, who was the sports editor at the Albany (Ga.) Herald for the past seven years.

Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald: Hired writer Jon Page, formerly of the Daily Dispatch in Henderson, N.C., to replace Matt Cobbs, who was hired by the Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald in May.

Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa): Longtime high school and small-college reporter Dearrel Bates will retire in August after nearly 37 years with the Times. ... Sports copy editors Joe Engel and Tim Leibold are moving into news and features positions. Katie Kerr has been hired to fill one of those slots.

Omaha World-Herald: Hired Josh Crutchmer as sports design director. Crutchmer was 1A designer at the Arizona Republic and previously was an ASE at The Daily Oklahoman. ... Hired Tim Parks as lead sports designer. Parks previously worked for Conference Call magazine, The Tulsa World and the Daily Oklahoman.

Kansas City Star: Hired Bill Reiter of the Des Moines Register as sports enterprise writer to replace Wright Thompson, who left for ESPN. ... Hired Lynn Nguyen of the Dallas Morning News to design centerpieces, special sections and destination pages. ... Hired Cole Young, Terez Paylor and Ryan Young as preps writers. ... Rehired slot/copy editor Nicole Poell from ESPN.com.

Wichita Eagle: Tom Seals was promoted from copy editor to assistant sports editor.

The Modesto Bee: Promoted Noel Harris from sports page designer/copy editor to assistant sports editor. He replaces Jim Silva, who moved to the features department.

Seattle Times: Hired Jerry Brewer from the Louisville Courier-Journal as columnist. Brewer also has covered the NFL for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the NBA for the Orlando Sentinel. ... Hired Danny O'Neil from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to cover the NFL and general assignment. It is O'Neil's second stint with the Times. ... Promoted Mark McTyre from designer to assistant sports editor/presentation. McTyre replaces longtime ASE Rick Lund, who is moving to the design team for local news. McTyre formerly worked at the Fresno Bee as designer and, before that, was sports editor of the Bellevue (Wash.) Journal-American.

Sacramento Bee: Online sports writer/producer Jimmy Spencer resigned to accept a position at nbcsports.com. ... Deputy sports editor Barbara Zumwalt resigned to become the metro editor for the Stockton Record.

Los Angeles Times: Helene Elliott, who in November was given the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for journalists from the Hockey Hall of Fame, is becoming a general columnist, which will give her the freedom to write about other sports. ... Elliott was replaced on the Olympics sports beat by Alan Abrahamson, combining that beat with his coverage of Olympic politics. ... Mike Penner takes over the morning briefing from Larry Stewart, who is expanding his role on the television sports beat.

Contra Costa (Calif.) Times: Hired James Leonard, formerly of the Modesto Bee, as a reporter and to work on the desk.

Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Hired Somer Breeze to cover high schools. Breeze was an intern this summer for the Spokane Spokesman-Review, where she covered minor-league baseball.

Idaho Falls Post Register: Sports editor Lance Hanlin stepped down July 22 to move to Mount Vernon, Ill., where his wife, a lawyer, accepted a new job. Columnist Mitch Worthington was named Hanlin's successor. Worthington, a former Marine, began his newspaper career answering phones in San Antonio. ... Hired Chrissy Zehrbach as assistant sports editor.

Medford (Ore.) Mail Tribune: Hired Carl McCutchen from Loveland (Colo.) to lead the copy desk.

SIDEBAR:

Jim McCormack, senior editor for sports and photography at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, announced that he would retire Aug. 12.

McCormack, 64, has been at the Press-Telegram for more than 44 years, 40 of those years in sports. During his sports department tenure, he was a reporter for 20 years, covering high schools and Long Beach State. McCormack covered every basketball game that Jerry Tarkanian and Lute Olson coached at Long Beach State, and he was covering the Tex Winter-coached 49ers when he moved inside to be an editor. He was the executive sports editor from 1980 into 1996 and was active in APSE at that time, including a stint as the West Region chairman. The Press-Telegram even hosted a couple of regional meetings.

McCormack was given the title of senior editor in April 1996 and moved into the newsroom, where his responsibilities included supervising project reporters and columnists as well as the religion section and the photo department. McCormack moved back in the sports department in 2002 and has been responsible for the day-to-day operation of the department. His last official act as an editor was to be a speaking engagement at a City of Long Beach Hall of Fame (baseball and softball) induction ceremony at Blair Field, the baseball stadium in Long Beach where McCormack has spent many evenings during his career.

McCormack will be succeeded by Joe Haakenson, currently the section's sports editor. Haakenson came to the Press-Telegram as sports editor in November 2005 after nearly 20 years at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Haakenson served the San Gabriel paper in a number of roles, the last of which was as Angels beat writer for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which includes the Press-Telegram, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the Los Angeles Daily News and a handful of other papers. McCormack's retirement plans include pursuing his lifelong interest in photography. He also hopes to be involved, as a content provider, in the Press-Telegram's planned expansion of its online high school sports coverage.

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Send personnel moves to Toby Carrig by calling 1-800-879-1210 or send an e-mail message to tcarrig@semissourian.com.

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