NEW ORLEANS (September 8, 2025) – Albert Edwards III, the AAU Junior Olympics gold medalist in the turbo javelin for 11-year-old boys, has been selected as August'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.
 
Edwards, a member of the New Orleans Metro Stars track club, won the AAU Junior Olympics gold medal in the turbo javelin for 11-year-old boys at the AAU Junior Olympics National Championships in Houston on August 2. He posted a distance of 123-05 (37.62 meters) to win by more than five feet. The turbo javelin is a lighter and shorter version of a traditional javelin which is used for younger age groups in international competition.
 
To add to his impressive performance, Edwards also placed fourth in the long jump (15 feet, 11 inches) despite the events going on at the same time – the 11-year-old bounced back and forth between events.
 
"I wanted to see what I could do at nationals," Edwards said following his memorable effort at the Junior Olympics. "I'm really happy and this makes me more confident for my next event."
 
Edwards, who recently started sixth grade at St. Pius X, was selected for the August award over four other standout local athletes.

• Drew Bourgeois, who redshirted the 2025 season as a freshman at Louisiana Tech, was named the 2025 All-American Amateur Baseball Association (AAABA) Tournament Batting Champion after hitting .706 for the New Orleans Boosters in the 80th annual edition of the national event in Johnstown, Pa. In five games, the Dunham High School graduate collected 12 hits in 17 at bats for a sizzling .706 batting average.
• Bernard Cheruiyot posted a time of 14:08.53 to win the individual crown at the five-kilometer Battle for New Orleans on August 29 in Tulane Cross Country's first race of the season. The sophomore's time was the second-fastest ever recorded at the event behind his own time from last season (14:00.1). The Kenya product won the race by nearly 20 seconds over his freshman teammate Silas Kiptanui as well as 80 other runners. His performance led the Green Wave to the team title over eight other schools. He was named the American Conference Runner of the Week for his performance.
• Colin Clark, a senior bowler at Holy Cross, won the boys U18 championship at the Capital City Strike Out in Baton Rouge August 30-31. Clark won four of five matches in the double-elimination finals, defeating Anthony Linker of Archbishop Rummel 461-417 in the two-game championship match to win the title. He averaged 219.7 for 18 games over the two days, including a pair of 279 games on Saturday to help him claim the No. 3 seed in the bracket. Clark was one of five New Orleans-area bowlers to make the six-player finals.
• Iman Ouedraogo, a junior for the Xavier University of Louisiana men's soccer team, scored three goals and added an assist in two August victories for Xavier. The Paris product scored both goals in a season-opening 2-1 victory at St. Thomas (Fla.) on August 21. He then assisted on the first goal and scored the second in a 2-0 home victory against NAIA No. 6 Mobile on August 29 – it was Xavier's first-ever victory against a top-25 soccer opponent (male or female). This is Ouedraogo's first season at Xavier after transferring from two-year Arizona Western.

 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 serve 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.