There are a lot of things I'm proud about at the Star-Telegram, and one of those is our Sports department. I'm familiar with every major news organization in the country, and for the past 15 years the Star-Telegram's coverage of sports has been some of the very best around.
We've had to reduce coverage somewhat over the years, as has every news organization, but our Sports staff can still compete with those many times our size and come out on top.Beginning in the late '90s, the Star-Telegram was named one of the 10 best sports sections in the country multiple times by the Associated Press Sports Editors. And we chose to compete in the "jumbo" circulation category against the likes of The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune, even though our readership base is much smaller than theirs.A significant reason we decided to improve sports was our main competitor, The Dallas Morning News. They had established a world-class sports section (part of the reason they put the Dallas Times Herald out of business), and we knew we had to be able to compete in that arena.Of course, our coverage of local news was the most important arrow in our quiver, but sports played a big part in our ability to remain the top news organization in Tarrant County.Two women played a huge part in transforming our sports staff from a good one to a great one. Ellen Alfano was the managing editor over sports, and Celeste Williams was our sports editor. Ellen is no longer with the paper, but Celeste continues to run sports for us and is a brilliant colleague who I'm convinced could run any sports department in the country.Like retired Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips used to say about Alabama's Bear Bryant: "He can take his'n and beat your'n and take your'n and beat his'n."Today the Star-Telegram still produces one of the best sports reports around. In both print and the digital realm, our columnists and reporters are recognized as being among the very best.Sports, along with breaking news and photo galleries, is one of the key drivers of our online traffic. And of course it's why many people buy our print product.Our two columnists, Randy Galloway and Gil LeBreton, have been on the scene for decades and provide a one-two punch unmatched by anyone in the Metroplex. Randy, with his ESPN radio talk show, is arguably the most recognized and influential sports journalist in Dallas-Fort Worth, while Gil is acknowledged as perhaps the most talented sports wordsmith around.Writer Mac Engel has turned himself into a real model of how a sports journalist should operate in the digital world, and his "Big Mac" blog is one of the best-read, most interesting takes on the sports world in this market.All the people who cover our main beats -- Charean Williams, Clarence Hill, Jimmy Burch and Carlos Mendez on the Cowboys; Jeff Wilson and Drew Davison on the Rangers, Dwain Price on the Mavericks and Stefan Stevenson on TCU -- are excellent writers with multiple years of experience covering their teams. They all use Twitter and Facebook to deliver nonstop insight digitally in addition to producing detailed reports in print.Editors Tom Johanningmeier and David Humphrey do a great job helping Celeste plan it all, and design director Michael Currie and lead sports designer Seth Schrock make sure it all looks great in print and digitally, especially our monthly iPad sports magazine, DFW-OT.If you have an iPad, you owe it to yourself to check it out in the Apple store. For $1.99 a month, I argue, it's better than you get from either Sports Illustrated or ESPN the Magazine.Top all that off with a veteran desk of copy editors and page designers who make things read and look just right, and you have the formula for a great sports staff.I get e-mail sometimes from out-of-towners who see the Star-Telegram either online or in print while they're visiting, and they usually express jealousy that their hometown newspaper isn't quite up to par on sports.They're right.Jim Witt is executive editor of the Star-Telegram817-390-7704Twitter: @jimelvisHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
