NEW ORLEANS (July 3, 2024) – Ryan Darrah, a rising senior at Brother Martin High School, who had a tremendous summer baseball season, has been selected as the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month for June. Athletes of the month have been selected by the Allstate Sugar Bowl Sports Awards Committee since 1957. The athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region in order to be eligible.
 
Greater New Orleans Amateur Athletes of the Month
 
Darrah, a 6-3, 180-pounder, had a sensational summer campaign as he led K's For Kids to the championship of the Crescent City Sports Prep Summer League. In the month of June, he hit an unimaginable .857 (18-for-21) with a dazzling 1.857 slugging percentage as he tallied five doubles, two triples, and four home runs, as well as 16 RBI. After leading his Brother Martin-based team to an 8-1 record and the league semifinals in June. Darrah and his teammates closed out the season with a pair of July victories to win the title. They took down Archbishop Rummel-based Malcolm M. Dienes, 3-1, in the semifinals, and then topped Pope John Paul II, 8-1, in the championship game. Darrah has committed to play baseball for Arizona State.
 
The baseball star won the monthly honor over five local athletes who had memorable June performances.

• Alia Armstrong, a graduate of St. Katherine Drexel Prep in New Orleans, closed out her distinguished LSU track and field career in style by advancing to the finals of the 100-meter hurdles at the 2024 United States Olympic Team Trials in Eugene. Johnson posted an Olympic standard time of 12.89 seconds to finish ninth in the finals (top three make the team) on June 30. She notched a time of 12.74 seconds in the first round on June 28 to qualify for the semifinals on June 29 where she registered a 12.67 to advance to the finals. Armstrong was one of two New Orleans area females to compete at the Track & Field Trials – Gabbi Jennings, a professional runner and a graduate of First Baptist Christian School in Slidell, placed fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
   
• Andrew Barreca, a 2020 graduate of Jesuit High School, defeated Patrick Blaum and Todd McPherson on the first hole of a sudden death playoff to win the New Orleans Metro Golf Amateur Championship on June 30 at City Park's Bayou Oaks South Course. Barreca, Patrick Blaum and Todd McPherson shot 8-under 136s over the two-day tournament that is also called The Mackel after Frank Mackel, a long-time golf pro in the New Orleans area. Barreca defeated McPherson and Blaum by making a birdie on the first playoff hole. Barreca won his first Mackel title, while McPherson, a two-time winner of the event, and Blaum, a Southeastern Louisiana University golfer, finished tied for second place.
   
• Luc Fladda turned in his best performance in a Tulane uniform with an eight-inning gem in a 3-0 win over Nicholls State in an NCAA Regional elimination game on June 1 in Corvallis, Ore. The junior southpaw who joined the Green Wave this season after a juco stint, allowed just four hits and two walks in his longest outing of the season. Fladda closed his junior season with a 5-3 record and a 4.77 ERA with 18 appearances, including 15 starts and 83 innings pitched.
   
• Kayden Hedrick was one of two New Orleans area swimmers to qualify for the U.S. Olympic swimming trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in June. Hedrick, who swims for the Nu Wave Swim Club, qualified in the 200-meter butterfly. Though he didn't qualify for the U.S. Olympics Team, at 17 years old, he was one of the five youngest to compete in his event (from 56 total qualifiers). An Alabama commitment, he qualified for the trials when he completed the 200 butterfly in 2 minutes, 0.38 seconds at a meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. the crowning moment came in his first swim attempt at the meet in Fort Lauderdale. "At the meet, when you touch (the wall), you look up at the scoreboard and you couldn't see the scoreboard because of how the sun was in it," he said. "So, I had to listen to the announcer, 'Kayden Hedrick, Olympic trials qualifier.' It was a lot of emotion. It was just pure excitement." He hopes to continue his dominance of the LHSAA Championships as a senior at Mandeville High School this fall.
   
• Enzo Solitario was the other New Orleans area swimmer to qualify for the U.S. Olympic swimming trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in June. Also a member of the Nu Wave Swim Club, Solitario qualified in the 100-meter butterfly. Though he didn't qualify for the U.S. Olympics Team, at 17 years old, he was one of the four youngest to compete in his event (from 67 total qualifiers). A Wisconsin commitment, he swam several times at three separate events before he finally beat the 100 butterfly qualifying mark and finished in 53.37 on his final attempt at a meet in Jacksonville, Florida, in May. "I was in pure shock," said Solitario, an LHSAA state champion in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle at the state meet in November. "I had gone for it four or five times. We basically trained for a year for this. I couldn't really believe it. Everyone around us was super excited at the meet." Solitario previously missed the cut by .08 seconds — equivalent to the length of a hand, Ross Hedrick said — while at a meet in Baton Rouge. He hopes to continue his dominance of the LHSAA Championships as a senior at Jesuit High School this fall.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 107 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 90-year history. The 91st Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Quarterfinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2025. 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 over $2.5 billion into the local economy in the last decade.