Photo Courtesy of Loyola Athletics.
Trenese Smith, one of the top players in the NAIA ranks for Loyola University, was selected as the co-winner of Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Female Amateur Athlete of the Year from the New Orleans area for 2009-10. 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.
Smith led the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) in scoring with 17.1 points per game in 2009-10. Loyola’s all-time leading scorer with 2,439 points, she was named All-GCAC, NAIA All-American and All-Louisiana. Her 514 points this past season rank sixth for a season at Loyola and she recorded 13 20-point efforts on the year. Along with the individual accolades, the three-time GCAC Player of the Year guided the Wolfpack to an overall record of 104-39, three GCAC titles and three appearances in the NAIA National Tournament.
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.
-AllstateSugarBowl.org-
