NEW HAVEN, May 25 -- Two Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance members took home Excellence in Journalism awards from the Connecticut chapter's annual Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) awards banquet. Writing for the Middletown Press, Jimmy Zanor earned a first place award for his sports column on former Giants coach Tom Coughlin. Gerry deSimas, Jr., of the Collinsville Press took home a first place award for his sports column on how an Avon mother and daughter shared t

Bruce Webster, the long-time and legendary men’s basketball coach at the University of Bridgeport and a Gold Key recipient in 2005, has died. He passed away on Wednesday, April 26, 2017. Webster, who came to Bridgeport after working as an assistant coach at Rutgers University, served as the Purple Knights’ head men’s basketball coach for 34 seasons, from the 1965-66 campaign through the 1998-99 season. During his tenure, his teams posted 549 wins, making him the school’s all-

Rayan Vatti, a senior at Cheshire High School, is the 2017 winner of the Bohdan Kolinsky Memorial Sports Journalism Scholarship, given by the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance. He will enroll this summer at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus in Phoenix. The stipend of $2,000 awarded him in April raises the total disbursed by the Alliance in the 14 years of the Kolinsky program to more than $61,000. Vat

The Connecticut Sports' Writers Alliance hosted their 76th annual Gold Key banquet and awards ceremony Sunday at the Aqua Turf with more than 350 people in attendance. Four Gold Key award were presented to NFL veteran Dwight Freeney, long-time Farmington High boys soccer coach Steve Waters, Hall of Fame swimming coach Ed Aston of Cheshire and five-time U.S. Olympic archer Butch Johnson of Woodstock. Click on the following link for some photos of Sunday's event in Southington.