NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State staffers Doug Ireland, Jason Pugh and Tony Taglavore picked up honors Sunday in the annual Louisiana Sports Writers Association's awards announcements capping the LSWA's convention and the 2016 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration.

In the sports information subdivision of the annual LSWA awards for excellence in writing, publications and broadcasting around the state, NSU captured four awards.
 
Ireland, SID since 1989, won a first-place award for editing the Demons' 2015-16 men's basketball media guide, which featured design work by assistant SID Jason Pugh and content by graduate assistant SID Matt Vines.

"Organization is everything in these guides. You can find everything you want to know about the Demons and some fun facts about the program in this one. Not a lot of wasted pages," said the contest judge.

Ireland's game notes package for the Demon football team's contest against Stephen F. Austin won second place in that category. Patrick Walsh's Louisiana Tech football game notes won the contest, with Pam Lafosse of McNeese  and Alex Edwards of Louisiana- Monroe tying for third for their game notes.

 

Pugh, who is wrapping up his second year on staff at NSU, captured a third place award in the "best release" category for the second straight year. He won for his story "Emotions flow during advance screening of ESPN Delaney film," the 30 For 30 documentary short "Delaney" that premiered last August about Demon great Joe Delaney.

 

In last year's contest, his winning entry was his feature on Melvin Howard, the Demons' first African-American football player in 1968. Pugh previously won several LSWA writing awards during 12 years with the Shreveport Times.

Taglavore is a veteran announcer for the Demon Sports Network, which the NSU SID office helps coordinate. He earned third place for radio play-by-play broadcasting with his call of the Lady Demon basketball team's Southland Conference Tournament game against Sam Houston State.  

 

Tech's venerable announcer Dave Nitz was the contest winner for his call of a basketball game at UAB, and Louisiana Tech SID Malcolm Butler was second for a women's basketball game against Southern Mississippi.

Louisiana Tech's Walsh won the writing category while former NSU student assistant SID Hunter Bowler, now full time at McNeese, took second and was also third in Olympic sports media guides. Another former NSU SID staff member, Robbie Kleinmuntz of ULM, won the Olympic sport media guides division.
 
With the two awards he won Sunday, Ireland raised his collection of LSWA contest awards to 27 in the last 16 years.
 
The honors were announced at the annual LSWA Awards Brunch at Bon Ami, the meeting room at The Landing Restaurant in Natchitoches, following the 2016 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration which is hosted in part by the NSU sports information office each year.