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Contact – Tim Stried, Director of Communications, [email protected]

 

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The officers of the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association (OPSWA) have announced the 2018 OPSWA Hall of Fame induction class, which includes former Alliance Review sports editor Mike Brown, Cambridge Daily Jeffersonian sports editor Jeff Harrison and Dayton Daily News sportswriter Debbie Juniewicz.

 

They will join 62 sports writing greats previously enshrined in the OPSWA Hall of Fame during ceremonies on Saturday, March 24 at the OHSAA boys basketball state tournament at the Schottenstein Center.

 

Biographical information for all three inductees is below. The OPSWA inducted its first Hall of Fame class in 1983. The complete list is posted at: http://www.ohsaa.org/news/OPSWA/HOF

 

The OPSWA was created in 1972 to support, promote and recognize the coverage of high school sports across Ohio. More information is available at: http://www.ohsaa.org/news/OPSWA

 

The annual writing and photography contest includes entries that were published from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2017. Postmark deadline for entry is Feb. 15, 2018. There are four divisions based on circulation size, with categories including investigative/enterprise, news story, feature story, column, game story, action photograph and portrait photography. Entry forms are posted at: http://www.ohsaa.org/news/OPSWA/contests

 

The annual OPSWA statewide meeting will be held in mid-April (specific date TBD) at the OHSAA office (4080 Roselea Place). The results of the annual writing and photography contest will be announced, officers will make announcements and current and future initiatives of the OPSWA will be discussed. A complimentary lunch will be served. Please RSVP to Tim Stried. There is no cost to attend the meeting for OPSWA members.

 

Mike Brown worked at The Alliance Review for 40 years, including the past 25 as sports editor, before retiring in 2017. During his time there, he won 23 individual writing awards from the Associated Press and Ohio Prep Sports Writers' Association, including for best game story, best investigative story and best feature writing. During his time as sports editor, The Review sports department was also recognized 10 times by The Associated Press for Best Daily Sports Section (top 3 placers).

 

A native of Homeworth, Ohio, Brown graduated from West Branch High School and continued his education at the Sharon (Penn.) School of Broadcasting, Kent State University, Mount Union College and Colorado Technical University. He has a bachelor's degree in business administration. Brown was on the Ohio Northeast Inland District Board for 30 years and is a past recipient of the OHSAA's Sportsmanship, Ethics and Media Award.

 

An All-Mahoning Valley Conference football player and league record holder in track at West Branch, Brown also covered Ohio State football for 40 years. He and his wife, Maryann, a registered nurse, have been married for 32 years and have three sons; Eric, a sports writer at The Alliance Review; Ryan, a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps about to be deployed to Iraq, and Jeremy, a junior at Kent State University. In retirement, Mike has continued his sports writing career part-time for the Lisbon Morning Journal and Salem News.

 

Jeff Harrison is the sports editor of The Daily Jeffersonian in Cambridge, where he has worked since 2000 after having spent 18 years at The Times Leader in Martins Ferry, including three years as the sports editor. He helped create the Hall of Fame of the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference (OVAC), which is a bi-state conference of 50 schools, and has served on the OVAC Hall of Fame committee since 2004. Harrison also originated the District 12 Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2008 and has been chairman of that Hall of Fame ever since. Throughout his career he has been on the Associated Press East District football and basketball all-star selection committee, including its chairman since 2009, and an AP state poll voter.

 

A member of the OHSAA Media Advisory Committee, Harrison was the recipient of the Eastern Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association media service award in 2006 and was a 2015 selection for the Ohio High School Basketball Association District 12 Hall of Honor. In 2017 he was inducted into the OVAC Hall of Fame. A longtime public address announcer and youth baseball coach, Harrison was a three-year letterman in baseball for Martins Ferry High School. He lives in Byesville, Ohio.

 

Debbie Juniewicz has covered high school sports for the Dayton Daily News and other Ohio publications since 1992. She has won many awards for her bowling, tennis and wrestling coverage over the years, among many other sports she has covered, and was the OHSAA Southwest District Athletic Board Media Service Award winner in 2017. Last fall she was inducted into the Greater Miami Valley Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame and has served on the OHSAA Media Advisory Committee since 2000. A native of Rocky River in Northeast Ohio, Juniewicz earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication from the University of Dayton, where she was a journalism instructor from 1995-2004 and again in 2013-14. She has earned multiple awards for game stories and feature stories from the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association.

 

Juniewicz resides in Kettering with her husband, Tom, and her three children – all athletes in their own right – including Corey, who is a University of Dayton graduate; Alex, a current UD student, and Mollie, a Holy Angels fifth grader.  

 

 

 

 

Office: 614-267-2502, ext. 124

Fax: 614-267-1677

 4080 Roselea Place

Columbus, OH 43214