Don Shoopman

Don Shoopman, Outdoors Editor at The Daily Iberian, has been honored by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for his excellent story “After Romero’s shrimp boat sinks in high seas, he takes on Gulf to live.”

The story, published on August 22, 2023, tells the tale of a local shrimp boat captain’s dramatic near-death sinking that started a 54-hour survival ordeal.

The LSWA judge had high praise for Shoopman’s ability to tell the story.

“The lead pulls you in and every paragraph which follows keeps you hanging on to every word,” the judge wrote. “As easy as it would have been for the writer to just bring you from Point A to Point B, this talented scribe made sure you felt like you were there, along for the ride, so to speak. I think what stands out to this judge is how the writer seamlessly bounces back and forth between the present day and the past. Just as you start to feel safe and comfortable, as the subject did in his telling of the story, the writer pulls you back into the water and you get to relive those harrowing moments again. A very solid story that I had to go back and read three more times, just because it was such an enjoyable read.”

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