Sugar Bowl

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has recognized the top prep coaches from the Greater New Orleans area since 2000 – candidates must coach a high school team that is based in the Greater New Orleans area. From 1962-1999, the award was presented to the top prep coach in the state of Louisiana, regardless of the sport gender, and then from 2000-2013, the award was presented to the top New Orleans coach, regardless of sport gender. Separate awards for boys and girls prep coach were established in 2013-14. The honor is selected by the New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, which has been existence since 1957. All of the Sugar Bowl annual awards were presented on a calendar-year basis until 2009 when the Committee changed to an academic calendar (July-June). The annual awards banquet is typically held in late July or early August. Records from 1991-98 are not available.
 
Hank Tierney, the state championship winning coach of the Archbishop Shaw football team, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Boys Prep Coach for 2024-25. Tierney was the first Shaw coach to be recognized since 2000 when boys basketball coach Darren Laiche was honored. Tierney himself won the honor in 1987 during his first stint with Shaw.
 
Tierney directed to a 49-14 regional blowout over No. 16 Loranger on Nov. 22, then won a hard-fought battle with No. 8 John F. Kennedy in the quarterfinals. In the state semifinals, senior quarterback Mason Wilson led four scoring drives and the Eagles held off a late rally by Madison Prep to improve to 11-2 and punch a ticket to the state championship game for the first time since 2008.
 
“No matter if you’re (star running back) Jasper Parker or the manager on the team, if we mess up, everybody is doing up-and-down (drills),” Wilson said. “Nobody is above the program. If we do great, everybody is going to get a ring. So that’s a great aspect about him.”
 
In the LHSAA Division II Select championship against third-seeded E.D. White, the top-seeded Eagles scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to post a 28-25 victory for their first state championship since 1987 (when Tierney was the 36-year-old head coach). Shaw didn’t hold a lead in the game until a long touchdown run by Parker and a touchdown reception by Jacob Washington put it on top 28-17.
 
“We’re so excited to win the game for Shaw and the West Bank community,’’ said Tierney, back at Shaw for the past three seasons after he previously coached the school to four other state finals appearances from the 1980s to the early 2000s. “It was a great high school football game, well-played and hard-fought. We’re just happy to come out victorious. I’m just so happy to get to where we got and win a state championship, which is so hard to do. I know that. This is the sixth (championship game) I’ve played in and lost four of them. So I know how hard it is to do that. I’m just so thrilled for our school, our community, and these young men.”

---