Press Democrat's Phil Barber wins national honors for story on Warrior Stephen Curry's mouthpiece

The Press Democrat sports writer Phil Barber was judged a co-winner in the features category of the Associated Press Sports Editors’ 2015 national writing contest for a story he wrote on the Warriors’ Stephen Curry and his ever-present mouthpiece.

Barber, whose winning story was published Nov. 26, shared first place with Tom Schad of the Washington Times.

Barber, who has been covering sports at The Press Democrat since 2003, also earned a third place in the breaking news category for the story he co-wrote with Petaluma Argus-Courier editor Matt Brown on the culmination of the historic Dawn Wall climb in Yosemite National Park by Santa Rosa’s Kevin Jorgeson and his partner, Tommy Caldwell. Brown was at the time a news reporter with the PD.

In column-writing, the PD’s Lowell Cohn was awarded the runner-up spot for a portfolio of five columns.

In writing divisions, APSE sport editors and their representatives judge a top 10 in each of the categories. Then those top 10s are passed along to a second judging group, which ranks them 1-10. APSE judging is divided into circulation categories. The Press Democrat’s entries were judged against other papers in the 30,000-75,000 group. It is the biggest group.

The PD’s Kerry Benefield also was in the top 10 for sports columns and placed eighth in the final round of judging.