Statesman names new sports editor

After two decades of doing a little bit of everything in the Idaho Statesman’s sports department, Chadd Cripe now gets to run it.

Cripe, who spent 14 seasons as the Boise State football reporter, was named the Statesman’s sports editor and columnist Wednesday. He replaces Mike Prater, who left the Statesman in April.

Cripe starts in his new role, which also includes overseeing the paper’s outdoors coverage, in July.

As the newspaper industry changes, Cripe is aware of the need to be forward-thinking in his approach as editor. First and foremost, his goal is to deliver stories that matter to readers.

“There’s a lot going on in sports, and it goes way beyond Boise State football and way beyond the traditional stuff. (We need to find) the stories that people care about,” Cripe said. “Accuracy, clarity and fairness are very important to me, and just making sure that we’re producing stories we’re proud of and that the people who are reading them can feel like we’re doing a good job.”

Cripe, 41, grew up in Oregon and has a communications degree from Washington State.

He joined the Idaho Statesman staff as a copy editing intern in June 1996. He transitioned to the sports department in 1997, where he covered Boise State football from 2002 to 2015. During that time, he also covered high school sports, the Idaho Steelheads, the Boise Hawks, the Idaho Stampede and golf. Since 2016, he’s been the Statesman’s outdoors reporter, developing a large following among urban recreationists in the Treasure Valley.

“My family and I love Boise,” Cripe said. “It’s a great place to live, and it’s been a great staff to be a part of. … I’ve traveled enough to know Boise’s hard to beat.”

Cripe has won numerous awards during his tenure, including The Associated Press Sports Editors’ top beat writer in 2013 in the 30,001-75,000 circulation category. He has 15 first-place Idaho Press Club awards and four first-place awards from the Utah-Idaho-Spokane Associated Press Association. He also co-authored “Blue Magic,” a book chronicling Boise State’s 2006-07 football season.

“The biggest thing is just trying to take all I’ve learned through 21 years here and try to help. In particular, this is an intriguing time for newspapers,” Cripe said. “I’ve had to go through so much change and adapt. We’re going to have to do that as a staff, and it will be fun to do.”

Cripe has been married to his wife, Brandi, for 18 years. The two have a 9-year-old son, Oliver.

Connect with Chadd at ccripe@idahostatesman.com, by phone at 208-377-6398 or on Twitter at @chaddcripe

This story was originally published June 28, 2017 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Statesman names new sports editor."