Daily Pilot and TimesOC staff haul home several O.C. Press Club award honors
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Staff writers for the Daily Pilot and TimesOC newspapers earned several awards and honors during the annual Orange County Press Club’s Excellence in Journalism awards held on Wednesday at the Anaheim Hills Country Club.
The event honored outstanding journalism in 2025, an otherwise chaotic year that kept reporters busy on the beat. The pair of Times Community News outlets walked away with seven honors total, including three first-place finishes.
Two of those coveted ice blue first-place awards belonged to the Daily Pilot’s intrepid reporter Matt Szabo.
He won top distinction in the Best Sports Story category for his feature “Newport Harbor baseball staying strong in the face of a player’s unexpected loss,” which employed eye-catching empathy in retelling how high school athletes rallied around their teammate after his father unexpectedly died.
Szabo also finished first in the Best Arts/Culture Story category with the dispatch “Huntington Beach man using ‘homeless’ moment to spread awareness,” which recounts how local artist Chapman Hamborg turned having the police called on him as a perceived homeless man into art advocacy.
“We need to be versatile and write about a wide range of topics at a community newspaper, and I enjoy the variety that brings on a day-to-day basis,” Szabo said. “The two stories that won are similar, in that they are both about people making the best of unfortunate situations. Really, that’s all we can do sometimes, right? I hope that the story and the writing really resonates with our readers.”
Both categories featured honors for a valued Pilot contributor, Scott French, whose “Huntington Beach tunes up for final as Loyola plays through tragedy” finished third for Best Sports Story and staff writer Andrew Turner, who gained an honorable mention from judges in Best Arts/Culture Story for “Sawdust Festival brings ‘magic’ during kickoff event for its 59th season.”
TimesOC staff writer Sarah Mosqueda won second place in the battle for Best Food/Restaurant Story with the delectable dispatch, “New panaderia in Santa Ana is a sweet addition to the neighborhood.”
Mosqueda also earned third-place honors in the Best Music/Entertainment Story category for the feature “The Coach House Concert Hall celebrates 45 years in San Juan Capistrano.”
Contributor Edwin Goei captured first place in the competitive Best Food/Restaurant Review Story category with his bursting-at-the-seams TimesOC tale, “How I ate more Japanese A5 Wagyu than I ever had in my life — while being timed.”
By the end of the night, the Daily Pilot and TimesOC staff had a good time — and a good haul of O.C. Press Club awards.
“It’s always a thrill for our newsroom when we learn some of our colleagues have been recognized for their work, so we were so happy to see Matt, Andrew, Sarah and our contributors, Edwin and Scott, do so well in this year’s stiff competition,” said Carol Cormaci, TCN’s executive editor. “Also, the Press Club itself should receive kudos for the work they do throughout the year, especially in the area of encouraging up-and-coming journalists through their scholarship program.”
