It was a bountiful week for The Daily Memphian sports staff, which was honored throughout the past few days with a first-place team showing in the Tennessee Press Association’s annual journalism competition, John Varlas’ big win in the Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s annual contest and Tim Buckley’s two TSWA category victories.

Varlas won the TSWA’s Gary Lundy Writer of the Year award, an especially notable achievement for The Daily Memphian’s preps reporter. His portfolio featured stories on the death of legendary Memphis high school basketball coach Terry Tippett, 901 FC’s sudden departure for California, and memories of Melrose High’s 1974 state basketball championship.

The staff won the TPA’s Best Sports Writing category in its respective division with a submission of stories that included work from Varlas, Buckley, Frank Bonner II, Geoff Calkins, Chris Herrington, Drew Hill and 2024 Daily Memphian summer intern King Jemison, now a digital producer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Buckley also took second place in the TPA’s Best Personal Humor Column category. Which is funny, especially for anyone who ever has endured his lousy jokes.

Also, Mark Weber’s capture of the reaction after Memphis Tigers guard Jahvon Quinerly hit a game-winning shot against SMU took fifth place in TPA’s Best Sports Photograph category.

All that happened on the same weekend sports editor David Boyd was attending the Associated Press Sports Editors convention in Minneapolis, where he picked up the staff’s Triple Crown national award won earlier this year.

Buckley won two TSWA awards: one being Best Investigative/Series for his detailed look into the Memphis Tigers’ NIL program and the other Best Feature Writer for a variety of stories. Three other Daily Memphian sports writers in addition to Varlas and Buckley — Bonner, Hill and Parth Upadhyaya — placed in various TSWA categories as the staff claimed 10 top three finishes in all.

Enough horn tootin’.

Meanwhile, it was no time to rest on laurels as Hill and Herrington had the busiest week of all with their reporting on the Memphis Grizzlies moving up to select Washington State’s Cedric Coward at No. 11 in the 2025 NBA Draft, landing West Virginia’s Javon Small and Tennessee’s Jahmai Mashack in the second round the next night, agreeing to a renegotiation-and-extension with star Jaren Jackson Jr., coming to terms with restricted free agent Santi Aldama on a new contract and picking up Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome soon after the NBA’s summer free agency market opened early Monday night.

Hill’s and Herrington’s coverage was timely, informative, insightful, analytical and, by definition, exhaustive – a feather in the cap of a fantastic team committed to covering the Grizzlies for Daily Memphian readers.

Here’s a look at some of the staff’s top work from the week: — Deputy sports editor Tim Buckley

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Herrington: The Grizzlies worked fast in free agency. Could they be done? By Chris Herrington

Why Grizzlies free agent addition Ty Jerome could be big deal By Drew Hill

Grizzlies hire player development coach By Drew Hill

Buckley: Memphis Tigers coach feels like he's working in the pros. Again. By Tim Buckley

Hill: Grizzlies drafted three ‘dawgs’ — and one's a chef. Will new recipe pay? By Drew Hill

Memphis star Dain Dainja denied additional season of eligibility By Parth Upadhyaya

Zach Kleiman talks Desmond Bane, Cedric Coward and free agency By Drew Hill

Former Memphis women's basketball coach has died By The Daily Memphian Staff

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