Journal writers Tompkins, Ireland capture LSWA awards
Rapides Parish Journal staffers Bob Tompkins and Doug Ireland won awards in the annual Louisiana Sports Writers Association writing contest for work in 2025, with results announced Sunday ending the LSWA’s annual convention in Natchitoches.
Tompkins, the columnist from New Orleans who is a central Louisiana icon, claimed honors in three categories.
He won second in Class II Prep Columns. Titled “Big hearts with little cash built a stadium, saved a school,” the article detailed an effort launched in 1995 as enrollment was dipping, culminating in the stadium’s debut in 1997 and the upsurge in momentum at Menard High School.
Its premise, he wrote: “The history of Menard’s stadium, which has gotten distorted a bit over the years, is worth telling, not only to set the record straight but because it is a testament to what can be done on a minimum budget with wave after wave of bighearted volunteers.”
In the Outdoors Column category open to writers from across the state, Tompkins took third with a feature on award-winning outdoor photographer headlined “’Have camera, will travel’ catch phrase for Jim Johnson.”
An excerpt: “If you didn’t see it, the male Brewer’s blackbird, captured in Johnson’s photo head-on, while in Colorado, has an expression with those characteristic bug eyes that befits the title in a way that tickles the old funny bone. He captured that whimsical photo with a Canon 500 f4L lens.
“Another popular photo in the display – which is redundant, I guess, because they all were popular – was of a ‘Peek-a-boo Fox.’”
Tompkins, whose work appears every Tuesday in the Rapides Parish Journal, and only occasionally focuses on sports-related subjects, tied for third in the Class II Columnist of the Year competition. Per contest requirements, he submitted three different columns as entries.
Ireland, who lives in Natchitoches and is a former Alexandria Town Talk sportswriter under Tompkins, picked up a second place in the Class II General Column contest with a Rapides Parish Journal piece marking the Feb. 15, 2025 dedication of Mike McConathy Court in Northwestern State’s Prather Coliseum noting the coach’s record-breaking success is just part of his importance.
Ireland won a first place in the Amateur Sports category for all publications, large and smaller markets, for a Shreveport-Bossier Journal story about a pitcher who “flies in, flies out, fires two-hitter in Legion state tourney.”
The contest judge wrote, “It was by far the most cleanly written of the stories in this category. The AP style was used like it should be, and the writer did a tremendous job of explaining the most important things that happened in the story within the first three paragraphs. For the most part, the story explained details and used quotes very well. Spelling and grammar was on point. Overall a very good story, extremely well-written.”
Ireland also captured second in the Class I (large cities) Prep Columns contest for a Shreveport-Bossier Journal piece advocating the creation of a high school basketball tournament to honor a deceased local basketball writer, Preston Edwards, who had remarkable regional influence in the sport and its participants.
Combining Rapides’ results with those by members of the staffs of the Shreveport-Bossier Journal, Natchitoches Parish Journal and Lincoln Parish Journal, the Journal Services group collected 19 LSWA honors Sunday, including Prep Writer of the Year for Shreveport’s John James Marshall.