The George Washington Carver basketball team, which won its second straight state championship, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Boys’ Prep Team 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.
Carver advanced to its third straight LHSAA Division II basketball state championship game and won its second straight title in 2023. This year’s team entered the postseason as the No. 6 seed and then took down No. 3, No. 2 and No. 1 to win the championship. The Rams’ semifinal win came against No. 2 Peabody, a nine-time state champion, and in the championship, it took down No. 1 Madison Prep – a program that has won eight state titles in the past 10 years. The Rams won their second straight title despite graduating three Division I players from last year. The stars this time included senior Jaylon Hicks, who made the winning basket with little time remaining in the semifinal, and junior Laurence Nathan, the other returning starter from the championship team last season. Daijon Leatherman, a 6-9 sophomore, had 21 points, 32 rebounds and nine blocked shots in the semifinals and finals.
“I just want to keep on building,” Carver coach Nate Roche said after his team’s 34-25 championship victory against Madison Prep. “I want to keep on growing as a coach. I want to keep impacting the community in Louisiana and New Orleans and keep producing athletes that can compete at a high level.”
The other finalists for the New Orleans’ Boys’ Prep Team of the Year honor were Archbishop Shaw Wrestling, Jesuit Cross Country, and Ponchatoula Basketball. Shaw won its first LHSAA wrestling championship as it captured the Division III championship with 215.5 points to edge four-time reigning state champ Basile by 1.5 points. Jesuit won the Louisiana Division I state championship with a perfect score of 15 points (meaning the Blue Jays had the top five finishers in the race) – it was the first perfect score in state history in the largest classification. Ponchatoula capped a historic season with a 63-48 win over No. 1 New Iberia in the LHSAA Division I nonselect championship in New Iberia – the Green Wave were making their first-ever appearance in a state championship game after qualifying for their first state tournament appearance since 1970.
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.
