Compiled by FRED M. FAOUR
Houston Chronicle

The Calgary Flames' march to the Stanley Cup had significant impact on the fortunes for both local papers. With a heavy emphasis on hockey, the Calgary Herald was up 200,000 in circulation over the eight-week playoff run compared to the same period in 2003, when the Flames failed to make the playoffs. The Calgary Sun, meanwhile, virtually sold out the commemorative magazines the paper produced.

The Toronto Sun underwent a complete redesign in April, the biggest change being starting the Sports section from the back of the paper like many tabloids do (with the exception of the outside back page, to which an ad is permanently sold). Initially the change was not received well by readers, who found reading back to front unsettling, but complaints have been few since.

Craig Daniels joined The Globe and Mail as deputy sports editor in March. Daniels, a former sports columnist with the Toronto Sun, joined the Globe in 2003 as a copy editor in the newsroom.

— Pat Grier

Several Chicago-area papers took advantage of the crosstown interleague series between the Cubs and White Sox and published special sections. The Chicago Sun-Times published a 40-page special section previewing the first series and a 20-page section the following week for the rematch. The Times of Northwest Indiana produced a four-page special section previewing the series and devoted two inside pages to each of the six games.

The new Great Lakes region chair is Scott Kendrick of the News Herald in Willoughby, Ohio. He replaces Lee Gordon of the Chicago Tribune.

— Scott Kendrick

When the Chicago Cubs sent 2003 all-star pitchers Mark Prior and Kerry Wood to their Triple A farm team on separate rehab assignments this season, the Des Moines Register saw an opportunity. The Register published a full-page posters of Prior and Wood in Iowa Cubs uniforms pitching in Des Moines. Through promotions and third-party sales, the newspaper's circulation department generated sales of an additional 15,000 newspapers for these posters.

The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) had extensive coverage of Paul Molitor's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25. Molitor's only season of minor-league baseball was in Burlington in 1977. They planned 2-3 pages worth of stories the day of the induction, including an interview with Molitor, an interview with Billy Williams, the only other Hall of Famer to play in Burlington, and interviews with two former teammates of Molitor's who live in the area.

The Wichita Eagle compiled a list of the 50 best sports things to do or see in Kansas. From participatory (dancing to K-State's "Wabash Cannonball" and "climbing" Mount Sunflower) to viewing as a fan (eight-man football at Hanston), The Eagle covered all parts of the state to give Kansas sports fans an extreme to-do list.

Preps Editor Pat Graham has been named the Denver Broncos and professional football beat writer for the Longmont Daily Times-Call. He replaces Pete Bigelow, who has become a page designer and special assignments writer.

Scott Dochterman of the St. Joseph's (Mo.) News-Press is the new Region Chair.

— Kevin Dale

Plans are in the works to have the regional meeting in Atlantic City on Dec. 5-6. The meeting would focus on use of the Internet in what we do and an extensive critique session.

Coming out of the national convention in Philadelphia, where it was discussed dropping the critiques from the contest, the Mid-Atlantic membership felt like it was a good idea to take the critiques to the regional level and spend quality time examining the work of sports sections.

We hope to have John Servis, trainer of Smarty Jones as the guest speaker.

More details, including hotel information will be forthcoming.

For those who helped with sponsorship of the national convention, thank you very much. We received rave reviews on the opening night reception at the National Constitution Center and could not have had it there without the assistance of the Wilmington News Journal and USA Today.

— Jim Jenks

The Orlando Sentinel spent the summer working with students in its inaugural Orlando Sentinel High School Sports Reporting Institute. A panel of nine Sentinel sports department employees selected 10 Central Florida high school juniors and seniors from a pool of almost 50 applicants. Students learned basic journalism skills by reporting on sporting events in July at Disney's Wide World of Sports, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' training camp. Each student was partnered with a Sentinel reporter or editor, who served as a mentor. Students in the monthlong workshop also attended weekly presentations by Sentinel staff members on journalism skills such as libel, editing, feature writing, column writing and interviews. The best student stories were published weekly in regional editions of the newspaper and on the newspaper's Web site. The Institute was directed by Sentinel High Schools Editor Tim Stephens.

From the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Kevin Spain has been promoted from copy editor to assistant sports editor in charge of the night operation. Kevin was the deputy sports editor in Chattanooga before joining the T-P. ... Trey Iles has been named assistant sports editor in charge of the prep operation. Trey returns to sports from news, where he had been an education reporter for the past year. Previously, he had a long tenure as a reporter in sports, covering Tulane and preps. ... Marcus Carmouche has been named assistant sports editor in a newly created position that will focus on zoned prep pages at night and also serve as the second night editor. Marcus came to the T-P a year ago from The Sporting News.

Jeff Legwold has left as NFL writer at The Tennessean to become the Broncos beat writer for the Rocky Mountain News. ... Jessica Hopp was named the Tennessee Sports Writers Association's best prep sports writer after finishing as runner-up in 2003. ... The Tennessean's sports section was recognized as the best in the state by the Tennessee Press Association.

Joe Culpepper, longtime assistant/deputy sports editor at The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger, left June 25 to become sports editor of the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal. He started there July 12. ... The C-L will have a new Mississippi State beat writer by the time this hits the press. Todd Kelly, who covered the MSU beat the last three years, will remain in Jackson and cover preps, which he did for many years before covering colleges for about five years. Once the MSU hire comes aboard, that person will live in Starkville. ... Assistant Sports Editor Kathy Lumpkin has departed the C-L.

News-Star sports editor Nick Deriso was named Columnist of the Year in Division II by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association during awards ceremonies held in July. That was one of four awards Deriso received —including first-place nods for spot news, with senior writer Paul Letlow; and series enterprise, with senior writer Scott Beder. The News-Star's Brenda Young placed first for prep feature, and designer Kris Hasse was given the top honors for page makeup.

Bill Passonno has joined The Macon Telegraph as a designer/copy editor. Bill is a recent graduate of Oswego (N.Y.) State and worked at the Troy (N.Y.) Record while in college.

— Bob McClellan

At the national convention, we decided to devote more time to critiques at next year's regional meeting at Austin. We also came up with a plan to help increase APSE membership by each taking on a few non-members papers and trying to recruit them.

The Houston Chronicle produced four special sections devoted to the All-Star Game, starting with Sunday, July 11. The Sunday section featured a collection of essays on baseball from several notable sports figures and writers, including Bud Selig, Brooks Robinson and Ruth Ryan, wife of Nolan.

The Beaumont Enterprise won a first place in sports in the monthly Hearst Distinguished Journalism Awards contest for May. According to Sports Editor Michael Peters, it was the first sports win in recent memory for The Enterprise, which beat out all of the Hearst metro papers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Albany Times-Union.

— Fred M. Faour