Sports anchor Dave Zawilinski leaving WOI-TV

Dave Zawilinski, the award-winning reporter and sports director for WOI Channel 5, is leaving the Des Moines market to become a morning news anchor in Omaha.

"It's a great opportunity," Zawilinski said. "It's a promising career path. Mornings are a growing part of our industry and it was an opportunity that was just too good to pass up."

Zawilinski will join the staff at NBC affiliate WOWT. WOI is an ABC affiliate.

He arrived in Des Moines as a Drake University freshman in 2001 and became an intern at WOI as a sophomore, graduating in 2005.

During Zawilinski's tenure, he covered the Bulldogs' run to the 2008 NCAA men's basketball tournament, Iowa's 2009 football journey to the Orange Bowl, Northern Iowa's upset of top-ranked Kansas in men's hoops and Iowa State's Sweet 16 appearance last spring.

He's expecting to cover the upcoming Cy-Hawk football game Sept. 13 at Kinnick Stadium, before heading west.

"I'll be back quite often," Zawilinski said. "Hopefully, I can find myself in the stands at some of these sporting events."