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Schmoldt new Gazette sports editor

Janesville native Eric Schmoldt has returned to be sports editor of The Gazette.

Schmoldt, a 2002 Craig graduate, is an award-winning sports journalist who most recently was managing editor of ProRodeo Sports News, a national publication based in Colorado Springs.

The Gazette has not had a sports editor since Dave Wedeward retired in November 2011 after 39 years in the position. Schmoldt will lead a four-person staff and coordinate the newspaper's coverage of local prep sports, as well as college, professional and other sports news.

Schmoldt worked as a freelance sports writer for The Gazette while attending UW-Madison. He also was sports editor of both the Daily Cardinal and Badger Herald student papers in Madison, covered football, men's basketball and hockey for BadgerNation Magazine/Scout.com and had a sports internship with the Capital Times.

After graduating from UW in 2006, Schmoldt took a job with the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming and was assigned to cover University of Wyoming football and basketball in Laramie. He was named Wyoming's sportswriter of the year in 2009 and 2011. Among his other assignments was covering rodeo from high school to the professional level.

Editor Scott Angus said adding Schmoldt gives Gazette sports a significant boost. The staff had been a person down since copy editor and page designer Brent Engh died of a heart attack in November.

"We're thrilled to bring Eric back to Janesville to help us improve our sports section and especially enhance our local coverage," Angus said. "Eric has proven himself to be an outstanding sports journalist, and we're confident he can help us elevate our game."

Schmoldt will regularly be out in the community covering games, meets and matches, and he will take the lead in deciding how The Gazette allocates resources for prep and other sports. He also will help increase and improve sports content on the paper's website, gazettextra.com, and promote the use of social media, including Facebook and Twitter, by the sports staff.