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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 2017 OPSWA Hall of Fame induction class, along with details for the annual writing and photography contest. Defiance Crescent-News sports editor Bruce Hefflinger, Dayton Daily News sportswriter Marc Pendleton and Columbus Dispatch sportswriter Mark Znidar will join 59 sports writing greats previously enshrined in the OPSWA Hall of Fame.

 

The three men will be honored on Saturday, March 25 at the OHSAA boys basketball state tournament at the Schottenstein Center. Biographical information for all three men 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, 2016. Deadline for entry is Feb. 15, 2017. 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 on Wednesday, April 19 at 10:30 a.m. at the OHSAA office (4080 Roselea Place). The results of the annual writing and photography contest will be announced, current officers will make announcements, new officers will be selected and OHSAA Commissioner Dr. Dan Ross will hold a question and answer session. A complimentary lunch will be served. Please RSVP to Tim Stried. There is no cost to attend the meeting for OPSWA members.

 

Bruce Hefflinger has worked at The Crescent-News in Defiance for more than 35 years, including the last 25 as sports editor. In that time, he has won numerous awards from Associated Press, United Press International and the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association. Among the highlights are first-place honors for writing, event coverage and best daily sports section.

 

A native of Defiance, Hefflinger graduated from Defiance High School and from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Journalism. He has been a member of the Associated Press Northwest District board for 17 years and is also a member of the Defiance High School Athletic Hall of Fame committee. He has covered the OHSAA boys state tournament for 35 years and has also covered state tournaments in baseball, football, wrestling and cross country.

 

Hefflinger was the OHSAA Northwest District Athletic Board’s Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Media Award winner for the 2006-07 school year and the District 7 Basketball Coaches Media Award winner in 2014. In addition to writing about athletes, Hefflinger coached junior high football for 30 years, youth baseball for 14 years and youth basketball for seven years. He and his wife Dianne have been married for 34 years and have three children Ben, Kelly and Dylan, three grandchildren (one of which is deceased) and have one grandchild on the way.

 

Marc Pendleton has been covering high school sports in the Dayton area since 1977 and has been with the Dayton Daily News since 1989. Prior to that, he was the sports editor of the Beavercreek Daily News and the Fairborn Daily Herald, and was a sportswriter for the Springfield News-Sun.

 

A native of Detroit, Pendleton is a graduate of Beavercreek High School and Wright State University with a bachelor of arts degree in communications. During his time at the Dayton Daily News, he has concentrated on football, basketball and track and field and has won honors from the OPSWA and UPI.

 

Pendleton and his wife Missy have two children, Christian and Aidan, and he has a daughter, Katie, who is a registered nurse in Dayton. Pendleton says that the best part of his career has been indirectly encouraging young people to read, which is the affect that high schools sports reporting had on him at a young age and hopefully others, too.

 

Mark Znidar has been with the Columbus Dispatch since 1985 and has covered high school sports along with the Bengals, Indians, Clippers, Ohio State men's basketball, Ohio State football and other Ohio colleges.

 

A native of Cleveland and a graduate of St. Joseph High School, Znidar earned a communications degree from the University of Dayton. His professional career has included stops at the Cleveland Sun Newspapers, the Atlantic City Press in New Jersey, the Lake County News-Herald in Willoughby, Ohio, the Cleveland Press and the Baltimore News-American before joining the staff at the Columbus Dispatch.

 

Znidar has a daughter, Amanda, and a granddaughter, Brooklyn.