“I try to find a way to stay positive when writing about high school sports. If an outfielder in a softball game dropped a routine flyball with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to lose the game, I always tried to point out that she had two hits in the game before I got to writing about that final play.”

-Tony Baranek, SouthtownStar Sportswriter and 2013 IHSA Distinguished Media Service Award winner