The Greenville Advocate won awards in 15 of 28 categories in the 2002 Alabama Press Association Better Newspaper Editorial Contest, including second place in General Excellence.

General Excellence is the award given to the newspaper judged the best in its category. The Advocate competes against all Alabama weekly newspapers with circulations less than 5,000. The Weekly Post of Rainsville was first

and The Brewton Standard was third in general excellence.

The Advocate won two first-place awards. George Wacha won first place in best sports news in-depth story or series for "Skateboarding park is finally becoming a reality&uot; and in best news photo for "Fugitive Captured."

The Advocate staff also won six second-place awards, including the category of Freedom of Information-First Amendment Award. Other second-place awards include best in-depth news coverage or series for "The 1-2-3’s of the A-B-C’s&uot; by Stacey Killingsworth, George Wacha, Angie Long and Amy Fuller, best feature story for "Hometown Hero" by Angie Long, and best headline for "Batters Up!" by Stacey Killingsworth.

In the area of sports, the Advocate won second for best sports single event story for "Softball complex opens" by George Wacha, and second and third place in best local sports column for "Getting into the game

literally" and "Goin' hunting," both by Amy Fuller.

Six third-place awards also were awarded to the Advocate, four of which were in the categories of best public service, best editorial page, best local economic coverage and best local education coverage. Buster MacGuire won third place in best editorial column or commentary for "Don't let T.V. do the thinking for you" and Stacey Killingsworth placed third in best editorial for "Risk-taking, job-making leadership helps county."

The Advocate also won third place in the Better Newspaper Advertising Contest for best presentation of R.O.P advertising.

Seventy-four newspapers submitted 2,737 entries in the annual contest, which was judged by the Colorado Press Association.

The awards will be presented July 27 at APA's 131st annual summer convention at the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach.