NEW ORLEANS (July 7, 2025) – Golfer Jade Neves, a sophomore-to-be at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, has been selected as June's Allstate Sugar Bowl Athlete of the Month presented by LCMC Health. 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.
 
Neves continued an outstanding year by winning the 97th Louisiana Women's Amateur Championship with a 3 & 1 victory over Abigail Williams of Benton on June 20-22 at OakWing Golf Club in Alexandria. Neves entered match play as the No. 1 seed and proved worthy of the ranking, delivering a composed and confident performance in the final match. After going 1 up with a win on the first hole, she faced adversity early, incurring a loss-of-hole penalty on the second hole. But the 15-year-old responded like a veteran.
 
"I just tried to stay in it, hit my shots close, and make the putts," said Neves.
 
The 15-year-old Neves, who is also the reigning Louisiana Girls' Junior Amateur Champion (2024), is one of the few players in LGA history to simultaneously hold both of the state's most prestigious female amateur titles – she also led Sacred Heart to the LHSAA Division 2 state championship while winning the individual state title this year.
 
She will look to add to her tremendous accomplishments by defending her Louisiana junior crown at Southern Trace Country Club in Shreveport from July 9-11 before traveling to Georgia to compete for the United States Girls' Junior Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club from July 14-19. Then from July 29 to August 1, she will play in the Junior PGA Championships at Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, Ind.
 
Neves won the June honor over four other standout local athletes.

• Patrick Blaum, a Covington native and a graduate of St. Paul's School, won the Mackel Championship to earn the title of the best amateur golfer in the Metro New Orleans area. Blaum, who is a senior-to-be with the Southeastern Louisiana golf team, won the event in a sudden-death playoff that lasted three holes, beating former Jesuit and LSU golfer Myles Lewis. Last year, Blaum lost the title in a sudden-death playoff. The Mackel, named after Frank Mackel, a long-time golf pro in the New Orleans area, is also known as the New Orleans Metro Golf Amateur Championship.
• Joshua Collins from Archbishop Shaw High School, finished second in a field of 379 boys bowlers at the U.S. High School Bowling Championships at Pro Bowl West in Fort Wayne, Ind., on June 9. Collins was seeded fourth heading into the final round and won the three-player semifinal match with a 219 game. Collins was the top qualifier with a Louisiana-record series of 1,031 for four games on June 8. He maintained his lead after the first elimination round on June 9 and remained in the top four throughout the day to earn his spot in the finals. It is the highest finish for a Louisiana boys bowler at the national event.
• Owen Nugent was a two-way star for the Rummel-based Malcolm M. Dienes CrescentCitySports Summer League baseball team which advanced to the league semifinals with a 10-2 record. The junior hit .393 in 10 games with one home run, three doubles, and 15 RBI. On the mound, he was 3-1 with a 2.80 ERA in five appearances (20 IP, 19 Ks, 17 hits).
• Varenka Zhuk, who recently completed eighth grade at Ecole Bilingue and will attend Country Day in the fall, had a dominant month on the track for the New Orleans Metro Stars. She posted wins in both the 800-meter run and the 1,500-meter run in the 14-year-old divisions at both the Louisiana Governor Games (June 7-8 in Hammond) and the AAU Junior Olympics Regional Qualifier (June 10-14 in Hammond). Her times in the Governor Games (2:18.95 in the 800 and 4:47.11 in the 1,500) broke division records that had stood since 2013. She then finished third in the middle-school 800-meter run (2:17.03) and 10th in the mile (5:06.71) at the Nike National Championships in Eugene, Ore., on June 19-22.

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.