Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month

The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 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. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the 1971 creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame, 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 amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month – the honors enter their 62nd year in 2018. To be eligible, an athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region. Each of the monthly award winners are honored in the summer at the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony, hosted by the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Photo by Wally Porter

Mary Nusloch was selected as the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month for May. She finished off her tremendous career at the Academy of the Sacred Heart by amassing four more state titles, including three individual championships, as she repeated as state champion in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs (for the third straight year) while anchoring the Cardinals’ 4×800 meter relay team which won that competition at the Allstate Sugar Bowl LHSAA Class 3A state track and field championships at Bernie Moore Stadium in Baton Rouge on May 4. Nusloch’s efforts (30 individual points) almost single-handedly led Sacred Heart to a repeat as state champion in Class 3A, finishing 15 points better than second-place Brusly (75-54 in total points as Sacred Heart scored just one field point). The reigning Gatorade Louisiana Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year finished her illustrious career with 14 individual state titles – nine in outdoor track as well as three in indoor track and two in cross country.

Nusloch earned the honor over an outstanding field of contenders, including two baseball stars, a pair of collegiate track champions and a youth track and field record-holder. LSU baseball standouts Cade Beloso and Daniel Cabrera, both Greater New Orleans products, keyed LSU’s run to the NCAA Tournament – Beloso hit .272 with three home runs in May while Cabrera hit .227 with five homers. Tulane’s Emmanuel Rotich won the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 5,000-meter run to tally 20 of Tulane’s 33 points at the American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship while Xavier University’s Shalysa Wray earned All-America honors in four different events at the NAIA National Outdoor Track Championships – just a freshman, she was the only woman to score in four events at the meet. In the youth ranks, 12-year old Robert Vaughn from the New Orleans Metro Stars track club set a meet record in the javelin while winning the discus and placing third in the shot put at the prestigious Mark Trail Invitational in Lawrenceville, Ga.