The National Council for the Training of Journalists has chosen the best students in the preliminary sports journalism exams, who were awarded prizes from sponsors The Football League.

Stephen Scott won the first prize to cover the Championship play-offs, Mike Revell’s second prize will see him report on League One and Rhys Hayward will cover the League Two final – with their reports being posted on The Football League’s website.

The NCTJ has also recognised the best trainee journalists in the media law exams – with Sarah Cooper winning the award for the best court reporting paper and Kate Ferguson was presented with the award for the top general reporting exam.

Stephen completed the part-time fast-track newspaper journalism course at News Associates in London in August last year and in November he started working as a news reporter for the Maidenhead Advertiser, while he also does some sport reporting.

He said: “I was really pleased to win the award, and I’m extremely thankful for all the help and guidance I received from the excellent tutors at News Associates in London.”

Mike attended Harlow College to do a postgraduate NCTJ course in magazine journalism and sports reporting and now writes about American football for the Mirror online, Inside American Football Magazine and BAFACL.com.

Rhys gained his NCTJ qualification at News Associates in London and since graduating he has worked for a national sports press agency and now works as a cricket writer and website assistant for Marylebone Cricket Club.

Meanwhile, the best students who completed the media law exams were each given cheques for £250 and a certificate from NCTJ chief executive Joanne Butcher.

Sarah, who won the Johnston Press prize for the best court reporting exam, studied at the University of Sheffield and is now working as a broadcast journalist at Hallam FM.

And Kate gained the Oxford University Press prize for the best media law general reporting exam which she took while at Lambeth College, securing a reporting job with the Willesden and Brent Times shortly after completing her course last February.

She said: “I was chuffed to hear that I had won the NCTJ’s media law award. I really enjoyed the course, and got so stuck into the legal case studies that I fleetingly considered life as a lawyer – but soon came to my senses.”