Marshall’s roll continues as Journal staffers capture LSWA awards
JOURNAL SPORTS
John James Marshall’s weekend was pretty good.
After being inducted in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame for his sports journalism career Saturday night, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal columnist and reporter won Prep Writer of the Year honors alongside six more awards in the annual Louisiana Sports Writers Association writing contest for work in 2025.
Results were announced Sunday ending the LSWA’s annual convention in Natchitoches in conjunction with the Hall of Fame festivities.
SBJ team members collected a total of 13 honors in the contest, with Teddy Allen, Ron Higgins and Doug Ireland joining Marshall receiving accolades.
Marshall’s Prep Writer of the Year in Class I (big city publications) led the way. He submitted three articles, including a column and coverage of at least two different sports, for consideration. The contest judge was impressed.
The judge wrote, “In a star-studded category such as this, it’s rare to have an entry which simply stands out above the rest. That speaks to the overall depth of this category, as well as the strength of the winning entry. This year’s Prep Writer of the Year has a style that is entrancing in a way that makes you upset when you’ve reached the end.
“This entry hits all the highlights it takes to win a category as strong as this one — solid structure, captivating content and an ability to weave a story. The longform feature — the crown jewel of this entry — is, simply put, on another level. The second “feature” harkens back to the history of a once proud school, one in which had definitely seen better times, but still lives on in the heart of its proud alumni. All this to say, this writer shined in a field that is absolutely full of heavy hitters.”
Marshall was the winner in Prep Columns in Class I for writing about covering the Independence Bowl’s high school football media day in the south end zone suite complex, and looking across at what used to be Fair Park High School, responsible for many of Shreveport’s greatest football memories.
The judge wrote, “Interesting angle on an otherwise run-of-the-mill media day. Vivid wording in the opener. A fun read about a now-defunct high school that had some impressive history.”
Marshall also captured a trio of third-place writing awards:
- College Columns, for his piece on the stupidity of tax-free NIL;
- Pro Feature, for an article about controversial former Shreveport Pirates minor-league football owner Bernie Glieberman;
- Prep Feature, for his story on the legend of Shreveport resident Greg Procell, a Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame member who became the nation’s all-time top scorer in high school basketball in the 1960s.
Marshall and his brother Ben captured another third place in the Best Radio Show Host category for their long-running “SportsTalk with JJ & Bonzai Ben” on 1130 the Tiger in Shreveport.
He picked up an honorable mention writing award in the Prep Event category for his game story on Parkway’s Nov. 16 first-round football playoff victory, 51-30 over Covington.
Higgins won the College Columns Class I category for his October 30, 2025 column on Gov. Jeff Landry living up to a stereotypical “Waterboy” image engineering the firing of athletic director Scott Woodward.
The contest judge commented “An excellent example of speaking truth to power. Columns like this were an important reminder to audiences during the coach/AD drama that nothing is as inconvenient to politics and other leaders as facts. Well reported, well written.”
The Baton Rouge-based writer also gained an honorable mention in the all classifications Beat Writer of the Year contest for his outstanding coverage of LSU sport for the Journal.
Allen, whose general interest column runs every Wednesday in the SBJ, took second place in the Best Headlines contest open to LSWA members around the state regardless of the market size for their publication. Three different headlines were required, noteworthy because Allen does not regularly write sports columns, although he does write his own headlines.
He also picked up an honorable mention in the Prep Columns contest writing about the pull of Friday night high school football.
Ireland won a first place in the Amateur Sports category for all publications, large and smaller markets, for an SBJ story about Benton’s Kade Bryant after the Northwestern State signee in 2025 “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 advocating the creation of a high school basketball tournament to honor deceased SBJ prep basketball writer Preston Edwards, who had remarkable local influence in the sport and its participants.
Ireland 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.
Combining those results with those by members of the staffs of the Rapides Parish Journal, Natchitoches Parish Journal and Lincoln Parish Journal, the Online Journals group collected 19 LSWA honors Sunday.