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Five students from four high schools earned recognition in KSPA’s January Story of the Month contest, which featured sports stories.

Sam Kovzan from Shawnee Mission East’s Harbinger earned best story honors with his profile of Lancer basketball player Anthony West. Judges from the University of Kansas School of Journalism noted Kovzan’s story-telling techniques, depth of research, writing skills and numerous sources as having pushed his story to the top.

Other students honored in the monthly competition:

• Ryan McCarthy and Lauren Komer from the Shawnee Mission Northwest Passage for the best on-deadline story, writing about Northwest’s boys’ basketball coach taking a leave of absence. The students’ ability to tell a complicated story in a short amount of time earned praise from the judges.
• Jessica Green from Maize High School’s Play news magazine for the best general sports story. Green effectively and succinctly told the story of Maize’s boys’ soccer season.
• Megan Kuharich from Blue Valley High School’s Reflections yearbook for the best yearbook sports story. Kuharic dug deep into the Blue Valley football season to tell a memorable story of the players and coaches involved.
• Clay Coffman from the Shawnee Mission Northwest Passage for the best sports feature. Coffman used a mix of sources — from players to medical professionals — to write about concussions, how those injuries can affect football players, and what can be done to lessen the number and the impact of concussions in the sport.

The February Story of the Month competition focuses on column and review writing, and the deadline is Feb. 26, 2010. As always, the entry form is to right of this Web page, and stories can be either mailed or submitted electronically to staff@kspaonline.org.