Photo by RomaPics for the LHSAA.
The Pope John Paul II volleyball team was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Girls’ Prep Team 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.
After the Pope John Paul II team won its fourth straight volleyball state title, head coach Danny Tullis had a simple explanation for the Jaguars’ recent dominance. “The key to our success has always been that our girls want to be teammates first and then become the best that they can be,” he told The Advocate.
The Jaguars finished the season 37-5 on their way to winning the Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA Division IV state championship. Their wins included two victories over Division I state champion Mount Carmel Academy and another over Division III champion Vandebilt Catholic. Sophomore outside hitter Ansley Tullis led the Jags with 416 kills and 299 digs and was named Player of the Year on The New Orleans Advocate’s All-Metro team for Small Schools.
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 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 66th year in 2022. 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.
