AL.com’s Nick Kelly has been named Alabama’s Sports Writer of the Year for 2024, the National Sports Media Association announced Tuesday.

Kelly, 26, covers Alabama athletics for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. He joined the company in July 2024 after three years with the Tuscaloosa News, where he also covered the Crimson Tide.

“From day one, Nick has been a tremendous asset for not just our Alabama beat, but for the AL.com sports staff and AL.com as a whole,” AL.com sports editor Andrew Hammond said. “Working with him in just a few short months has been a blessing. Each day I’m working with him, I get to see why’s been lauded with so many accolades this early in his career. It’s a much-deserved honor for one talented writer.”

Kelly’s work in 2024 included coverage of the retirement of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and the hiring of Kalen DeBoer, the Crimson Tide basketball team’s first-ever trip to the Final Four and DeBoer’s debut season as coach.

The NSMA award is the second national honor for Kelly in the last year. In August, he was named the 2024 winner of the Football Writers Association of America’s Edward Aschoff Rising Star Award.

Kelly graduated from the University of Missouri in 2020 and interned with Boston Globe Media before working for the Columbia Missourian and Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He was hired to cover Alabama for The Tuscaloosa News in 2021.

Kelly is the eighth different AL.com writer since 2013 — and third straight overall — to win the NSMA award for Alabama sports writer of the year. A Minnesota native, he lives in Birmingham with his wife, Elizabeth.

David Crane of UAB Sports Net and Barry McKnight of Troy Radio Network shared the honor for 2024 Alabama Broadcaster of the Year. As with Kelly, both are first-time winners of the award.

The NSMA awards will be presented at the organization’s annual convention, held each June in North Carolina.