Sugar Bowl

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has recognized the top male and female athletes (non-professional) from the Greater New Orleans area since 1978 – candidates must either play for a non-professional team that is based in the Greater New Orleans area or must be a native of the New Orleans area competing elsewhere. 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.
 

Kade Anderson, a St. Paul’s graduate and the ace pitcher for the LSU baseball team, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Male Athlete from the New Orleans area for 2024-25. Anderson, a native of Madisonville and a St. Paul's School graduate, closed one of the top pitching seasons in LSU history by turning in a pair of sensational College World Series outings to earn Most Outstanding Player honors as LSU captured its eighth baseball national championship. For the year, the southpaw recorded a 12-1 record with a 3.18 ERA and 180 strikeouts (No. 1 in the nation) in 119 innings (tops in the SEC). Opponents hit just .211 against him and he walked just 35 batters.
 
The First Team All-SEC selection started LSU’s opening game at the World Series and tossed seven innings of three-hit ball, allowing just one run and striking out seven as the Tigers took down No. 3 Arkansas, 4-1. In the first game of the championship series against Coastal Carolina, which came in with a 26-game winning streak, he then turned in one of the best games of his career at the most crucial time as he threw a complete-game shutout, allowing just three hits and striking out 10 in a 1-0 victory which put LSU in the driver’s seat for the championship.
 
“He's the best player in the country,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “There's nobody closer to the major leagues than that right now.”