MITCHELL — The Mitchell Republic’s Marcus Traxler was named South Dakota’s Sportswriter of the Year for 2023, the National Sports Media Association announced Tuesday.

The award is voted upon by fellow sportswriters and sportscasters in the state. A first-time winner, Traxler will be honored at the NSMA’s award banquet in North Carolina this summer.

“Our newspaper has put a strong emphasis on covering sports for years and we’re grateful to have Marcus leading that charge,” Mitchell Republic Editor Luke Hagen said. “He’s a wonderful person, a fantastic writer and reporter and has undoubtedly earned this recognition for all his hard work.”

Traxler, a native of Le Center, Minnesota, is a South Dakota State University graduate. He’s worked for the Mitchell Republic for 10 years. He’s covered a wide variety of news and sports topics around the region and has been the newspaper’s Assistant Editor for the last six years. He was named the state’s Outstanding Young Journalist in 2017, as recognized by the South Dakota Newspaper Association.

Currently, he leads the newspaper’s staff of four sportswriters and writes about high school and college sports in the Mitchell region and around the state. He is also a leader in the newspaper’s enterprise and column writing and contributes to the Mitchell Republic’s sports podcasts and videos. Traxler is also a contributor to the fast-growing Sioux Falls Live website for high school and Division I college sports coverage. The Mitchell Republic and Sioux Falls Live are owned by Forum Communications.

“It does not surprise me that Marcus is being named state Sportswriter of the Year,” Mitchell Republic Publisher Joni Harms said. “We are so fortunate to have someone of his talents on our team. His dedication, discipline and leadership abilities are nothing but quality. His expertise in the sports world has extended to coaching his reporters to be their best. Well deserved, Marcus.”

The South Dakota Sportscaster of the Year for 2023 was University of South Dakota play-by-play broadcaster John Thayer, of Vermillion. Thayer also won the award for the first time.

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