Kristen Nuss, the winningest collegiate beach volleyball player in history, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Female Amateur Athlete of the Year for 2020-21. The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, selects annual award winners in a variety of categories; it also selects Amateur Athletes of the Month and each year’s Hall of Fame class.
Nuss, a graduate of Mount Carmel Academy, finished her LSU beach volleyball career with 139 victories, more than any other player in the history of college beach volleyball. She teamed with Tayn Loth to post a perfect 36-0 record, tying the best record by an undefeated pair on Court 1 ever and the pair was selected as the American Volleyball Coaches Association Beach Pair of the Year (the equivalent of National Players of the Year) as well as being All-Americans.
In addition to earning top athlete honors for New Orleans, Nuss was selected as the James J. Corbett Award winner as the top female amateur athlete in the state of Louisiana.
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee has presented annual awards to amateur athletes in the region since 1958. Nuss also earned the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the year honor in 2016 after leading Mount Carmel to state titles in both volleyball and basketball – and earning MVP honors in both championship games.
The other finalists for Greater New Orleans Female Amateur Athlete of the Year were Kate Baker (Dominican Volleyball), Angela Charles-Alfred (Xavier University Tennis) and JerKaila Jordan (Tulane University Basketball). Baker was the Gatorade Louisiana Volleyball Player of the Year after earning MVP honors at the Division I State Tournament as Dominican captured the Division I championship. Charles-Alfred closed her distinguished career by earning All-America honors for the fourth straight year after helping Xavier reach the NAIA semifinals for the third consecutive time as she finished the season 20-5 in singles and 28-4 in doubles. Jordan became just the second player in American Athletic Conference history to be named the league’s Freshman of the Year unanimously as she led the Green Wave in points per game at 16.7 and shooting percentage at .477.
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 when 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 creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, 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 65th year in 2021. 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.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 99 Hall of Fame players, 51 Hall of Fame coaches and 19 Heisman Trophy winners in its 87-year history. The 88th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will feature top teams from the Big 12 and the SEC, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2022. 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 $2.7 billion into the local economy in the last decade.
