Photo by Musmeche Photography.
The Ursuline Academy basketball team was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Girls’ Prep Team of the Year for 2015-16. 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.
The Lions, a team without any juniors or seniors in the starting lineup (they start three sophomores, a freshman and an eighth-grader) earned the No. 8 seed for the Top 28 tournament and proceeded to post five state tournament victories (67-56 over Plaquemine, 66-48 over Ellender, 59-55 over St. Thomas More, 58-50 over Karr and a 61-48 victory over Rayne) to earn the title – it was their first title game appearance since 1995. In the championship game, Ursuline trailed 48-47 with less than six minutes to go, but the Lions rallied and closed the game on a 14-1 run. The win snapped a 26-game winning streak for Rayne and also avenged Ursuline’s first round loss in the 2015 state tournament. Ursuline finished the year with a 27-6 record as sophomore Kourtney Weber was named the championship’s Most Outstanding Player after tallying 29 points, nine rebounds and five steals in the title game. Weber was also selected as the Class 4A Most Outstanding Player by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.
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.
