NEW ORLEANS (August 5, 2023) – The Allstate Sugar Bowl presented 33 awards on Saturday evening at its annual Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Banquet at Caesars Superdome's Club XLIV. Emcee Ro Brown, a long-time sports reporter in New Orleans presided over the event as the Bowl recognized its 12 amateur athletes of the month; the best athletes, coaches, and teams from the New Orleans area; Louisiana's top collegiate coach; the Corbett Award honorees as the best male and female athletes in the state; and four new inductees into the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame. Sugar Bowl President Richard Briede also presented six $10,000 Women in Sport Scholarships to outstanding New Orleans area female student-athletes. The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee selects all of the honorees.

"We say this every year, but it truly is a very challenging process to [select the winners]," said Brown, who is a member of the Sports Award Committee. "There are so many deserving candidates in every category. It's not an easy process; but I feel like we have a very memorable group of honorees tonight. These are the best of the best for the city of New Orleans."
 
"It's important to us to honor the outstanding people in amateur athletics, be it from high school all the way through college," said Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley. "The Sugar Bowl has been proud to be the sponsor of this event for over 50 years now. It's nice to recognize excellence in any field.
 
"First and foremost, the Sugar Bowl is a sports tourism entity," Hundley continued. "Right behind that, we like to provide opportunities for young people in our city. The youth of the city represent the future and we want support them and recognize them; and we do it through athletics. We're providing opportunities, whether we're sponsoring events, whether we're doing recognition events like we're doing here. It's all about propping those people up and encouraging them so they can go on and do great things."
 
The event opened with the presentation of the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athletes of the Month before the yearly award recognition for the best in New Orleans.

"It didn't matter who I ran against or who was next to me, I always knew I could do anything I put my mind to," said LSU track star Alia Armstrong, who was recognized as New Orleans' top female athlete for the second year in a row.
 
The next honorees were the Women in Sport Scholarship winners. Each of the six honorees were selected based on their athletic and academic success as well as their involvement in community service and an essay they wrote regarding why they felt they were deserving of an Allstate Sugar Bowl scholarship.

"Honoring young student-athletes for their hard work and dedication is one of the Sugar Bowl Committee's favorite things to do," said Briede before he announced the winners: Alex Bremond (Pope John Paul II soccer, tennis, and track & field), Alayna Cardenal (Thomas Jefferson Academy softball and dance), Molly Mangiapane (Archbishop Chapelle basketball, cross country, and track & field), Zaria Nelson (Isidore Newman volleyball, basketball, track & field), Kiersten Taylor (Pearl River soccer, cross country), and Lindsey Wickersham (Mount Carmel volleyball).
 
The Tulane Football team and Tulane women's basketball coach Lisa Stockton were presented Jimmy Collins Awards for their outstanding accomplishments in the past year. The Green Wave footballers won the Cotton Bowl and Stockton became the winningest coach in women's basketball history in Louisiana.
 
"It started right after the season [the 2021 season when Tulane went 2-10]," said Green Wave quarterback Michael Pratt when asked when he first knew the team had excellent potential. "That whole off-season, the leadership of the guys stepping up, the whole coaching staff. We knew we had the team to it, but we had to go out there and put forth the effort every single day. We just manifested it and worked our butts off every single day."

"The history of women's basketball in this state is incredible," said Stockton. "It's pretty amazing to me to be in the company [of legendary coaches in Louisiana]. I'm very honored."
 
After the Collins Award presentations, the Corbett Award plaques for the top male and female amateur athletes in Louisiana were presented to a pair of national champions in Dylan Crews from LSU Baseball and Angel Reese from LSU Basketball. Both had prior commitments and could not attend – LSU assistant coach Gary Redus accepted on behalf of Reese and Crew recorded an acceptance video.
 
"I want to thank the Nola Sports Awards Committee and the Allstate Sugar Bowl," Crews said. "This is truly a blessing to be part of a great group of athletes who have won this award. I want to thank my parents, without them nothing is possible, and everybody who's helped me out to get to this point. Thank you and go Tigers!"
 
Crews recorded the video a couple of hours before his professional baseball debut in the Florida Complex League. The No. 2 overall pick in this year's Major League Baseball Draft, Crews followed up his acceptance video by going 3-for-3 with a double off the wall and three runs scored.

The final honorees were the Class of 2023 for the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame, which has now inducted 255 legends since its inception in 1971. This year's inductees were Grace Daley (Tulane Basketball), Frank Monica (St. Charles Catholic Football), Steve Mura (Redemptorist HS/Tulane Baseball), and Wayne Reese (Carver/McDonogh 35 Football).
 
"I'm so honored," said Monica, who won football state championships at three different high schools during his 51-year coaching career. "I was so fortunate to coach more young men than I could count and it got to where I knew faces better than names. This is really for them."
 
"[Wayne Reese] was a true gentleman who touched so many lives," Monica said of his fellow inductee who passed away in 2020.
 
"For a kid who grew up in the Irish Channel, playing for NORD and Redemptorist and then Tulane, this is a big deal," said Mura, who lives in California. "I only wish my mom and dad were still alive to enjoy this."
 
"We knew Grace was a special player from the beginning," Stockton said of Daley, who starred for her Tulane teams in the last 1990s. "The thing that stands out to me about Grace was her spirit. Anyone who did what she did in a career has to be that. She had a Michael Jordan mentality about doing whatever it took to win."

Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Honorees, 2022-23:
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductee: Grace Daley, Tulane Basketball
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductee: Frank Monica, St. Charles Catholic Football
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductee: Steve Mura, Redemptorist/Tulane Baseball
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductee: Wayne Reese, Carver/McDonogh 35 Football
 
Corbett Award – Male: Dylan Crews, LSU Baseball
Corbett Award – Female: Angel Reese, LSU Basketball
 
Jimmy Collins Special Awards: Tulane Football & Lisa Stockton (Tulane Women's Basketball Coach)
 
Outstanding Boys' Prep Coach of the Year, New Orleans: Cullen Doody, Jesuit Cross Country
Outstanding Girls' Prep Coach of the Year, New Orleans: Chris Prator, St. Scholastica Swimming
Outstanding Female Amateur Athlete, New Orleans: Alia Armstrong, LSU Track & Field
Outstanding Male Amateur Athlete, New Orleans: Tyjae Spears, Tulane Football
Outstanding Boys' Prep Team, New Orleans: Carver Basketball
Outstanding Girls' Prep Team, New Orleans: McGehee Track & Field
Outstanding Collegiate Coach, Louisiana: Kim Mulkey, LSU Women's Basketball
 
Greater New Orleans Amateur Athletes of the Month, 2022-23
June, 2022: Alia Armstrong, LSU Track & Field
July, 2022: Gavriella Smith, Penn Tennis
August, 2022: Chris Olivier, New Orleans Boosters
September, 2022: P.J. Martin, De La Salle Football
October, 2022: Michael Pratt, Tulane Football
November, 2022: Tyjae Spears, Tulane Football
December, 2022: D'Wanye' Winfield, Lutcher Football
January, 2023: Kameron Johnson, Archbishop Shaw Basketball
February, 2023: Spencer Lanosga, Jesuit Wrestling
March, 2023: Ellie Schneider, Country Day Softball
April, 2023: Giancarlo Arencibia, Archbishop Rummel Baseball
May, 2023: Kali Magana, Louise McGehee Track & Field
 
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee came together when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month and a variety of annual award winners. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month as well as a range of annual awards – the honors enter their 67th year in 2023.
 
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 102 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 89-year history. The 90th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2024. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting nearly $2.4 billion into the local economy in the last decade.