If there’s a sporting event in or near Edinburg, Texas, you’ll likely find Greg Selber ’89 on the sideline with camera and notepad in hand.

Selber’s dedication to covering sports in the Rio Grande Valley paid off this spring when he was named Putt Powell Sports Writer of the Year by the Texas High School Coaches Association.

“I have always said that I am more of a writer than a reporter,” says Selber, a reporter for the Edinburg Review and the website 956sports.com who is also an associate professor of communications at University of Texas-Pan American.

Selber was nominated for the award by high school coaches in Edinburg. They cited the quality of his writing along with his presence at seemingly every sporting event in the region. He was also lauded for taking his own action photos to accompany his game stories.

Selber says he prides himself in telling compelling stories about the athletes — not merely describing who won. As a result, his stories are richly layered with historical and social context. His articles for 956sports.com approach 3,500 words — more than five times the length of the average newspaper sports story.

“I can take my experience in higher ed to give sports more heft and gravitas,” Selber says. “I may spend eight paragraphs talking about some fans in the stands and what they are saying on their cellphones about the kids or the game or begin a story with a lengthy introduction about the game site and its relation to Chicano activism in the 1960s.”