Spring-Ford Area High School senior Matt Dunne recently received the Pennsylvania News Media Association’s top prize for sports writing in their 2021 Keystone Student Media Awards competition.

The contest, “recognizes high school and college journalism that provides relevance, integrity, and initiative in serving readers,” according to the organization’s website.

Dunne is the first student at Rampage, Spring-Ford’s student-run newspaper, to win the top prize at the annual statewide competition. Dunne has served as sports editor the past two years at the newspaper.

Dunne won the award for his article, “Examining tough questions facing PIAA.” The article, written this past summer, was about the complexities facing the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association as it planned a fall sports schedule. Dunne detailed local and statewide officials’ attempts to resume high school sports this past fall safely.

“I wrote the story because I thought there were a lot of other people with similar questions,” Dunne said. “I wanted to give people an outlook on what was happening.

“I wanted to see if I could ease people’s thoughts and concerns about athletics by telling them about what people were doing to try and make a fall season possible.”