Anthony "Pooka" Williams, the record-setting running back for the Hahnville High School football team, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Male Amateur Athlete of the Year for 2017-18. 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.
Williams, who was named Mr. Football for Louisiana by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, the Offensive Player of the Year for The New Orleans Advocate’s All-Metro Team for Large Schools and the Offensive Player of the Year on USA Today’s All-Louisiana team, finished the season with 3,128 yards and 37 rushing touchdowns in leading the Tigers to the Class 5A state championship game. He also caught eight passes for 169 yards and a touchdown, returned six kickoffs for 333 yards and a touchdown and returned three punts for 64 yards and a TD. In five playoff games, Williams rushed for 1,403 yards and 14 touchdowns. The 5-9, 165-pound running back signed to play with Kansas for the fall of 2018.
“He’s run for almost seven miles,” Hahnville coach Nick Saltaformaggio told Nola.com. “That’s a pretty good four years labor. He’ll go down as one of the very greatest players in the history of prep football.”
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, 102 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 89-year history. The 90th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2024. 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 nearly $2.4 billion into the local economy in the last decade.
