WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina — Joseph Cyr is the Maine winner of the National Sports Media Association Sportswriter of the Year award.
Cyr, who serves as a news and sports reporter for the Houlton Pioneer Times, received the nod following a vote of the state’s members of the NSMA during the month of December 2017. He was notified two weeks ago and the award was made public Tuesday, Jan. 16.
“I am truly honored to received this prestigious award from the National Sports Media Association,” said Cyr, a first-time winner. “It is very humbling to be recognized in this manner. Covering local sports is a privilege that I do not take lightly.
“Over the past 25 years in the business, I have had a chance to work with some pretty amazing sports writers. I have always tried to learn from them and pass along that knowledge to those just starting out,” he added.
Cyr, a Houlton native, began his newspaper career at The Star-Herald in Presque Isle. After four years there, he worked for Courier Publications in Rockland for nearly 11 years and then for VillageNet Media, also based in Rockland, for another year. He then returned to Aroostook County and has been back with the Houlton Pioneer Times since 2009.
“Joe is a class act and is very deserving. He is very respectful and professional, and a great communicator,” said Shawn Graham, coach of the Houlton girls basketball team. “He puts a tremendous amount of time into our local sports teams as he is around the facilities days, nights and weekends.”
Cyr and the other state sportswriter and sportscaster winners, along with national winners and Hall of Fame inductees, will be honored during the 59th annual NSMA Awards Weekend, to be held June 23-25, 2018, in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Ernie Clark of the Bangor Daily News was the other Maine sportswriter who was a finalist for the award. Rich Kimball of Black Bear Sports Properties/Learfield in Orono won the state’s sportscaster honor. Rene Cloukey of WAGM-TV in Presque Isle was the other finalist.
“What makes this so special is that Joe is a general assignment reporter who covers everything from school board and council meetings to accidents and fires for Houlton and the surrounding communities,” said Senior Editor Rick Levasseur of Northeast Publishing, which produces the Houlton Pioneer Times. “Then he goes out of his way to photograph and write about sporting events, even when he has to do it on his own time because, he says, ‘That’s what our readers care about.’ Joe definitely deserves this honor.”
Northeast Publishing General Manager Andrew Birden said, “Joe has an astonishing drive to tell the story of the communities he serves in compelling style. When it comes to sports especially, Joe leads the way for journalists across the state.
“He makes capturing amazing images and telling the essence of sports stories look easy, when those of us with experience in the same field know that sports coverage is one of the most challenging branches of journalism,” Birden added.
Cyr and his wife, Charity, have two daughters — Isabel, 14, and Olivia, 11.
Sportscasters voted into the NSMA Hall of Fame during the latest balloting are Woody Durham of University of North Carolina Radio and Bryant Gumbel, who has worked for NBC, CBS, PBS and currently HBO. Sportswriters voted to the shrine are Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post and Dick Weiss of Blue Star Media, the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News.
The National Sportscaster of the Year is Kevin Harlan of CBS, Turner Sports and Westwood One, while Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Yahoo Sports claimed National Sportswriter of the Year honors.
