Chris Prator, who directed St. Scholastica to its 12th straight LHSAA swimming championship, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s
Greater New Orleans Girls’ Prep Coach of the Year for 2022-23. 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.
Prator led St. Scholastica Academy to the LHSAA Division II state championship, the 12th straight state title for the school’s swimming team. This victory hit just a bit different for Prator, whose team scored 409 points to finish well ahead of St. Thomas More with 263 in the girls’ team race.
“We went in with goals and one of the main goals was that everybody makes it back from prelims and everybody scores,” Prator said. “That happened, and we are very excited. It does not happen that way often. When it does, that adds something to it. We never talk about times or the psyche sheet. It’s we’re going in to keep SSA’s legacy. It’s a cohesive group. We had 10 seniors and six swam today. For us to take down those two relay records was a great way for them to go out.”
St. Scholastica’s Gabby Hall won the 100 butterfly in 58.68 seconds and was part of the Doves’ Division II record-setting 200 and 400 free relays.
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee has recognized outstanding high school coaches for the New Orleans area since 1962. It is the first time that Prator has been honored.
Joining Prator as finalists for the
Greater New Orleans Girls’ Prep Coach of the Year honor were
Julie Ibieta (Country Day Volleyball),
Colleen Loerzel (Newman Volleyball), and
Tamra Regalo (Riverside Softball). Ibieta, the winner of this honor in 2020-21, directed her Cajuns to their seventh straight volleyball state championship. Loerzel guided Newman to the No. 1 seed in the LHSAA Division IV state playoffs and the Greenies didn’t drop a set in five straight LHSAA Tournament victories to earn the championship. Regalo saw the Rebels open the season with five straight losses, but she righted the ship and Riverside closed the year with 21 wins in their final 25 games, including a 5-0 win over No. 1 Catholic-Pointe Coupee in the LHSAA Division IV selection softball championship game for their first state title since 2002.
The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee came together 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 and a variety of annual award winners. 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 as well as a range of annual awards – the honors enter their 67th year in 2023.
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.
