Camryn Chatellier from St. Mary’s Dominican, the top volleyball player in Louisiana, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Female Athlete from the New Orleans area for 2023-24. The 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 New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame class. Chatellier is the first athlete from Dominican to be selected for the honor.
Chatellier was selected as the Gatorade Louisiana volleyball player of the year for 2023 becoming the second Dominican athlete to earn the award, joining two-time winner Kate Baker after she won in 2020 and 2021. The senior, who has signed to play beach volleyball at LSU, led Dominican to a 44-2 record and its fourth straight LHSAA Division I state championship in 2023. The 5-foot-10 outside hitter amassed 595 kills and 477 digs to go with 58 aces, 32 blocks and 27 assists. Chatellier completed her four-year high school career with 1,497 kills and 1,023 digs.
“Camryn is a six-rotation player who is a threat on the court from all positions,” St. Joseph’s coach Sivi Miller said in a release from Gatorade. “She is an offensive threat at the net and she also helps her team defensively with her block.”
The senior was named the most outstanding player of the Division I state championship game after recording 24 kills, including the one from the right side that ended a fourth set that required eight extra points after No. 2 seed Mount Carmel served four times with a chance to push the match to a fifth set. She also posted 25 kills and 22 digs in a four-set victory semifinal over No. 4 Slidell and 20 kills in a quarterfinal sweep of No. 9 Fontainebleau.
The other finalists for New Orleans’ Outstanding Female Amateur Athlete honor Sophia Bonnaffee (Archbishop Hannan Volleyball), Sandra Cannady (Loyola Women’s Basketball), and Ka’Lyn Watson (Southeastern Louisiana Softball). Bonnaffee, a senior outside hitter who has started since her freshman year, posted 24 kills and 10 digs to lead Hannan to its third state championship during her career. Cannady was selected as the Southern State Athletic Conference Player of the Year and an NAIA All-American after leading the Wolf Pack to the conference championship. Watson was named the Southland Conference Hitter of the Year after leading the Lions to a school-record 47 victories, their first Southland Conference Championship, and their first trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The 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 68th year in 2024.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 29 national champions, 107 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 90-year history. The 91st Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Quarterfinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2025. 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 over $2.5 billion into the local economy in the last decade.
