Peabody Press recognized at THSPA Awards

The Tennessee High School Press Association held its annual awards day on Monday, March 4 at Lipscomb University. 

The Peabody Press had five pieces nominated for awards this year. Anything published in the 2023 calendar year is eligible to be submitted. We have submitted pieces for consideration to the THSPA awards since 2015.

This year, Annie Cox ‘24 and Margot Ross ‘24 earned first place in the Best Sports Story for their story, “Depth leads Tigers XC teams to state meet runner-up finishes,” which was published in December.  Margot earned runner-up in the same category for “Wellons vies for U20 USA frisbee spot,” also published in December.

Interestingly, that 1-2 finish is the third year in a row that we have taken home two of the top three awards in the Best Sports category.  Last year, Olivia Jelsma ‘23 took home second place and a collaboration between Reid Murray ‘22 and Margot took third place; in 2022, Sheerea Yu ‘23 and Reid finished 1-2 in the same category.

Annie and Margot also took home awards as individuals. Annie earned third place in the Best Feature category for her feature on Independent Studies, “Independent Studies transform passions into credit,” published in October. Margot earned first place in the Best Illustration category for “On Magnolia Lawn,” a piece that accompanied our first day of school issue in August.

Bronson Schmidt ‘25, a newcomer to Peabody Press staff in the fall, earned second place for Best Review for his review of the “Five Night’s at Freddy’s” film.

Most notably, Margot won the H.L. Hall Award for Journalist of the Year. She follows in the footsteps of Sheerea Yu ‘23 and Esha Karam ‘21, both of whom won the award in their senior years. Margot will be invited to submit a portfolio for consideration for the national JEA Journalist of the Year.

And if an adviser can be permitted to depart from AP Style for a moment ... Needless to say, we’re delighted with this recognition. Annie and Margot have joined a short list of our writers who have earned recognition in multiple categories in the same year — a list that previously included only Joe Noser ‘16 and Sheerea Yu ‘23.  They have worked to sustain a newspaper that is committed to publishing stories that are timely, relevant, accurate, and have continued to do so at a clip that is faster than our peer publications. They’ve also worked incredibly hard to help grow and mentor our newer staff members, and they have put into practice some processes that will hold us in good stead long after they graduate.