NEW ORLEANS (June 26, 2025) – The Edna Karr football team, which was dominant in winning the LHSAA Division I Select State Championship, and the Slidell volleyball team, which became the first public school to win the Division I state title since 2011, have been selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl's Outstanding Prep Teams from the Greater New Orleans area for 2024-25.
 
The New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, has selected annual award winners in a variety of categories since 1958; it also selects Sugar Bowl Athletes of the Month and each year's New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame class. Overall, 30 individuals and two teams will be honored for their achievements at the 2024-25 Allstate Sugar Bowl Sports Awards Banquet presented by LCMC Health on August 2. Honorees are currently being announced, wrapping up with the Corbett Awards for the top male and female amateur athletes in the state on July 8 and 9.
 
Edna Karr wrapped up an undefeated season with a dominating performance in the LHSAA Division I Select Playoffs as they won their four games by a combined score of 172-47. The state championship victory over second-seeded Alexandria, who also came in undefeated, was the most impressive of all as Karr jumped to a lightning fast 14-0 advantage and continued to roll – the final 10:42 of the game was played with running time as mandated by LHSAA rules when one team gains a 42-point advantage.
 
Quarterback John Johnson was exceptional in the victory as he accounted for 358 of his team's 512 yards and five of the offense's six touchdowns with his running and passing.
 
Alexandria, the undefeated District 2-5A champions, coming from a league that featured reigning Division I non-select state champion Ruston and highly regarded Neville, managed only 194 yards of offense and 13 first downs compared to Karr's totals of 24 firsts and 512 yards.
 
"The team motto this year was 'reclaim,''' head coach Brice Brown said. "What are we trying to reclaim? We are trying to reclaim a sense of our identity, not just reclaim a state championship. Reclaim the sense that we are the best team in the state of Louisiana. Reclaim that we are the best high school in the state of Louisiana. We have the best character. We have the best students. We have the best teachers. We have the best principal. We have the best trainers. That's what we're trying to reclaim. Because when you are charged with leading a program with such a great magnitude as Edna Karr, the expectation is real. The expectation is to win. But how do you do it, though? That matters. It's not what you do, it's how you do it."
 
Slidell lived up to its top-seeded billing and won a volleyball state championship on Nov. 16 at the Cajundome. Against four-time reigning state champion Dominican, the Tigers won the first two sets and overcame a third-set defeat to secure its first LHSAA volleyball state championship since 1997. It also snapped a 10-year run of Catholic League state championship dominance that also included six titles won by Mount Carmel.
 
Senior Demoni Lewis and junior Addyson Dowell combined for 27 kills as Dowell earned the outstanding player award. Lewis had nine blocks. Other contributors included junior setter Ava Labat with 45 assists, along with senior Regan Robinson and junior Isabella Spelling with strong defensive performances on the back row.
 
Lewis and Dowell put down plenty of the points needed in the final set to build an early lead and close out a 25-17, 25-20, 23-25, 25-15 victory that gave coach Danny Tullis his seventh state championship. Slidell became the first public school to win a Division I volleyball state title since Tullis coached Fontainebleau to a championship in 2011. His other five crowns came later while at Pope John Paul II.
 
"The focus of this season really started when I came here two years ago and I told them they had the same things that everybody else has, just not the belief and not the understanding," Tullis said. "But they started to believe in themselves in the way that I believed that they could win."
 
The Sugar Bowl also conducted a fan vote for its annual awards and the Girls Prep Team of the Year was Mount Carmel Soccer while the fan vote winner for the Boys Prep Team of the Year was St. Augustine Basketball. Mount Carmel recovered from a 3-4-3 finish to the regular season to win multiple post-season thrillers, outscoring its opponents 16-1 in the state tournament to capture the Division I championship. The fourth-seeded Purple Knights, made up primarily of junior varsity players from the 2023-24 season, kept No. 3 St. Thomas More from scoring in the third quarter and widened the lead in the fourth on the way to a 45-35 victory in the LHSAA Division I select state final.
 
Joining Slidell and Mount Carmel as finalists for New Orleans' Outstanding Girls Prep Team of the Year were Haynes Volleyball and St. Scholastica Swimming. Haynes came together behind sisters Virginia and Marilyn Voitier to upend top-seeded Hannan to capture the LHSAA Division III state championship in the school's first-ever trip to the state title match. St. Scholastica's swimming dominance continued as the Doves used a balanced effort to tally 365 points, 91 points ahead of second-place to win their 14th straight Division II team title at the LHSAA state swim meet.
 
The other finalists for the New Orleans' Outstanding Boys Prep Team of the Year honor were Archbishop Hannan Basketball and Archbishop Shaw Football. Hannan won its second state title in four years as the second-seeded Hawks and star forward Drew Timmons (22 points on 10-of-16 shooting) won a defensive slugfest over top-seeded Shaw, 59-55, to earn the LHSAA Division II select championship. Shaw earned its first state championship since 1987 (and just its second overall) as the top-seeded Eagles scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to defeat E.D. White, 28-25, for the LHSAA Division II Select championship.
 
The Allstate Sugar Bowl will continue announcing its annual awards tomorrow (Friday) with the Outstanding Collegiate Coach from Louisiana.
 
Jimmy Collins Awards: Noah Confident, Brother Martin Wrestling; Brian Marelo, Hahnville
Outstanding Boys' Prep Coach of the Year, New Orleans: Hank Tierney, Archbishop Shaw Football
Outstanding Girls' Prep Coach of the Year, New Orleans: Courtney Ward, Sacred Heart Basketball
Outstanding Female Amateur Athlete, New Orleans: My-Anh Holmes, Willow Tennis
Outstanding Male Amateur Athlete, New Orleans: Kade Anderson, LSU Baseball
Outstanding Boys' Prep Team, New Orleans: Edna Karr Football
Outstanding Girls' Prep Team, New Orleans: Slidell Volleyball
Outstanding Collegiate Coach, Louisiana: Brad Neffendorf, LSU Shreveport Baseball
Eddie Robinson Award – Burzis Kanga, UNO Tennis
Corbett Award – Male: Kade Anderson, LSU Baseball
Corbett Award – Female: Aneesah Morrow, LSU Basketball
Women in Sport Scholarships: July 28 (Monday)
 
New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025:
Shan Foster, Basketball, Bonnabel HS/Vanderbilt/NBA, 2001-13
Temeka Johnson, Basketball, Bonnabel HS/LSU/WNBA, 1997-2018
Joe McKnight, Football, John Curtis Christian School/USC/NFL, 2004-16
Andy Russo, Basketball, Fortier HS/USL/Brother Martin HS, 1956-78

The 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 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 athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month as well as a range of annual awards – the honors enter their 69th year in 2025.
 
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 29 national champions, 110 Hall of Fame players, 55 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.