NEW ORLEANS (March 7, 2025) – Richie Clementi, a four-time state champion wrestler from Brother Martin High School, has been selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl Athlete of the Month for February. Athletes of the month have been selected by the New Orleans 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 to be eligible. Clementi is the first Brother Martin athlete to earn the honor since September of 2015 – another Crusader wrestler, Paul Klein, also was recognized after winning his fourth state championship in February of 2015.
 
Allstate Sugar Bowl Athletes of the Month
 
Clementi became the third four-time state champion in Brother Martin wrestling history (and just the 22nd in state history) when he dominated the 144-pound division with four pins and a shutout in the final at the state meet in Bossier City on Feb. 15. Clementi helped lead the Crusaders to a Division I runner-up finish behind state champion Jesuit. The senior pinned four consecutive opponents in a total of just four minutes and 38 seconds before shutting out No. 2 seed Cole Gros of Dutchtown 8-0 in the championship match.
 
Clementi finished his season 41-3, unbeaten in Louisiana, and had an overall record of 186-7 in his storied career. He has committed to wrestle at California Baptist University.
 
The senior won the honor over one of the more impressive fields in recent years. There were a total of 10 nominees, including three state champion soccer players, three collegiate stars, a bowling prodigy, a baseball ace, and another state champion wrestler.

• Will Andrade used his arm and his bat to lead the Holy Cross baseball team to a perfect 11-0 record. The senior was a perfect 4-0 on the mound and threw a complete game no-hitter in a 1-0 victory over Mandeville. In the no-hitter, Andrade's pitch count was 91 with 11 strikeouts. For the month, he pitched 21.2 innings, struck out 37 batters and had a 0.65 ERA.  In an earlier win over E.D. White, Andrade allowed only three hits through five innings, striking out nine and walking only two. At the plate in February, the 6-0, 170-pounder hit .351 collecting 13 hits which included two doubles and two triples.
   
• Jakevion Buckley averaged 18.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.8 steals per game as he led the Southeastern Louisiana basketball team to a 6-2 month of February. He earned back-to-back Player of the Week honors from the Southland Conference after powering the Lions to a five-game winning streak which pushed them into the top four in the SLC standings. The 6-1 senior guard had a string of six straight 20-point games, including a career-best 27 points in a road win over Incarnate Word and a pair of 25-point efforts (2/10 vs. Houston Christian; 2/17 vs. McNeese State). For the season, the Shelbyville, Texas, product is second on the team with 14.5 points per game and leads the Lions in both assists and steals.
   
• Nora Francois, a 6-2 center from Minneapolis, was named the Southland Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week on Feb. 24 after recording the first UNO triple-double since 2003. Francois tallied 19 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists against East Texas A&M (2/20) – she also added five steals and three blocks. She was the first among all NBA, WNBA, and men's and women's Div. I collegiate players to have at least 15 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists, five steals and three blocks in a game since 2000. The Minneapolis product followed that effort with 20 points on Senior Day against Northwestern State (2/22). On the season, Francois leads the Privateers in scoring (15.0 ppg), rebounding (8.2), and blocked shots (30).
   
• Stella Junius was selected as the Most Outstanding Player after leading Mount Carmel to the LHSAA Division I state soccer championship on Feb. 22. The fourth-seeded Cubs used a series of short passes to set up Junius for a one-on-one opportunity against the goalkeeper that she promptly put in the net for the defacto game-winner in a 2-0 victory over No. 2 C.E. Byrd. While the junior's goal against Byrd was the key to clinching the state championship, earlier in the month she may have tallied even more impressive goals as she scored overtime game-winners in both the state quarterfinals and semifinals. She nailed a shot to the top left corner of the goal in a 2-1 victory over top-seeded St. Joseph's in the semifinals (2/14) and also scored the overtime winner against Northshore in the quarterfinals. The junior finished the season with 18 goals and 10 assists.
   
• Jenelle Rotunda, a junior wrestler for Chalmette High School, became the first Chalmette athlete to win an individual state championship in wrestling as she captured the 165-pound championship in the first year of the LHSAA sanctioning girls' wrestling. Rotunda won her championship match with a dominant performance, pinning her opponent just 50 seconds into the first period, and she gave up just one total point in all of her matches.
   
• Erik Santamaria was named the Most Outstanding Player for the LHSAA Division II soccer state championships for the second straight year after a memorable performance. No. 2 Holy Cross came into the championship match with a 21-1-3 record and had to take on top-seeded Teurlings Catholic and its 23-1-0 record. Santamaria scored his first goal in the 23rd minute and then he added a second goal in first-half stoppage time. He then placed a perfect cross to Cooper Wolterman who scored the game-winner in stoppage time in the second half for the 3-2 victory.
   
• Caroline Todd, the only eighth-grader on the St. Scholastica girls' soccer team, scored a pair of goals to lead the Doves to the state championship with a 4-1 victory over top-seeded St. Thomas More on Feb. 21. She was named the game's Most Outstanding Player. St. Scholastica's win snapped an amazing streak of seven straight state titles for St. Thomas More – Todd was six years old the last time the Cougars didn't win the championship. The eighth-grader scored her first goal in 57th minute to break a 1-1 tie and then she delivered again in the 64th minute – her team-leading 22nd goal of the season. She also added a goal in a 4-1 semifinal win over No. 3 Teurlings Catholic (2/14).
   
• A seventh-grader competing on the Patrick Taylor varsity bowling team, Zander Tran is believed to be the youngest bowler in Louisiana history to roll an 800 series when he achieved the feat in a February 13 match against Belle Chasse. On the day before his 13th birthday, Tran started the day with his second career 300 game and followed it with games of 234 and 266 for an even 800 series. In 10 games over four matches in February, Tran averaged 238. Patrick Taylor went 4-0 in February and is 5-1 on the season, looking to match or better its run to the state semifinals last year.
   
• A graduate transfer from UCLA, Maya Wilson was the star of Tulane's third-place finish in the American Athletic Conference swimming championships, with a hand in five first-place finishes. Individually, Wilson took home conference titles in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle, finished second in the 50 free, and anchored winning teams in the 200, 400 and 800 free relay. Individually, she scored 92 points – second-most of any swimmer in the meet – and swam the final leg on four relay teams that produced another 246 points. In her only season Uptown, Wilson set school records in the 100 and 200 free. She has reached provisional ("B") standards for the NCAA Championship in both events.

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 91-year history. The 92nd Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Quarterfinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2026. 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. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.