Geoghegan Honored with PSAC Heaslip Media Award
LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - Neil Geoghegan, from the Daily Local News, has been chosen by the league’s sports information directors as the winner of the 2016 PSAC George Heaslip Award. Bristol received the award Monday at PSAC East Football Media Day hosted by Kutztown University.
Geoghegan is currently in his 32nd year as an award-winning sports journalist. He has been a reporter for the Daily Local News since 1992.
He has continually covered West Chester and Cheyney during that, in addition to writing stories about the PSAC throughout the years. He spent six years on the WCU and CU beat in the mid-1990s, covering West Chester men's basketball during the height of its program, while also writing about West Chester's nationally ranked football program. Additionally, Cheyney's men's basketball program was perennially one of the conference's elite over that same time period. Geoghegan returned to the conference beat in the last decade and has picked up right where he has left off in terms of promoting the league. The majority of his time as a professional journalist has been spent in Chester County, following local athletes who continued their careers at West Chester, Cheyney, or another school in the league.
It is through his efforts in the mid-1990s that the PSAC football and basketball league standings were published in the newspaper. He is currently one of the few beat writers at a newspaper that commits to covering West Chester University football on the road, traveling to every away contest in recent seasons. Geoghegan personally organized the coverage of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament in Philadelphia in 2000, recognizing the significance of the contributions made by West Chester and Cheyney to the birth of women's basketball.
In addition to his coverage of the PSAC, Geoghegan worked as a beat writer following Penn State football for nearly a decade, while also covering various PGA Tour and LPGA Tour events.
Geoghegan becomes the 28th winner of the George Heaslip Award, which is chosen annually by the league’s sports information directors. Named in honor of the late Cheyney University Sports Information Director George Heaslip, the award recognizes a media professional for his or her meritorious service while covering the conference's student-athletes, coaches, and teams.
Year-by-Year Heaslip Award winners:
2016 - Neil Geoghegan, West Chester Daily Local News
2015 - Jason Bristol, CBS-21 (Harrisburg)
2014 - John Enrietto, Butler Eagle
2013 - Tom Housenick, Allentown Morning Call
2012 - John Dudley, Erie Times-News
2011 - Matt Burglund, Indiana Gazette
2010 - Kevin Freeman, Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal
2009 - Chuck Seese, WVPO/WSBG Radio/Stroudsburg
2008 - Tony Coccagna, Indiana Gazette
2007 - Phil Axelrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
2006 - Bob Black, Harrisburg Patriot News
2005 - Ron Bracken, Centre Daily Times
2004 - Liz Sullivan, West Chester Daily Local News
2003 - Dave Mackall, Pittsburgh Tribune Review
2002 - Goose Goslin, KDKA Radio
2001 - By Kintzer, WGAL/WLPA Radio
2000 - Jeff Schuler, (Allentown) Morning Call
1999 - Bob Hafer, Harrisburg Patriot-News
1998 - Tom Coccagna, Chambersburg Public Opinion
1997 - Bill Albright, Williamsport Sun Gazette
1996 - Jim Camp, Erie Morning News
1995 - Jack Benedict, WCCS/Radio Homer City
1994 - Tom Rose, Washington Observer-Reporter
1993 - Jim Doyle, WJMW Radio, Bloomsburg
1992 - Pete Zapadka, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
1991 - Ray “Skip” Hutter, Harrisburg Patriot-News
1990 - Ross Nevel, The Lock Haven Express
1989 - Ray Kienzl, The Pittsburgh Press