Jonathon Orillion, the coach of the state champion Jesuit High School boys’ cross country team, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s
New Orleans Boys Prep Coach of the Year 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 Sugar Bowl Athletes of the Month and each year’s Hall of Fame class. The Sports Awards Committee has recognized outstanding high school coaches for the New Orleans area since 1962. Orillion becomes the second straight Jesuit coach to earn the recognition.
Orillion, in his third year as the head coach at Jesuit, directed the Blue Jays to their second consecutive state title. Jesuit dominated the state championships with three individual winners among eight weight-class finalists, helping it finish more 45 1/2 points ahead of runner-up Holy Cross. The 2001 Jesuit graduate was an assistant when the Blue Jays finished sixth at the state tournament in 2021. In three seasons as head coach since then, Jesuit was a state runner-up in 2022, won the state title by four points in 2023, and then turned in this year’s dominant performance. This year’s Jesuit championships came from Bodi Harris (120 pounds), Jackson Calderaro (215 pounds), and Spencer Lanosga (285 pounds). The Blue Jays had 13 top-6 finishers and advanced eight wrestlers to the finals.
“We’re just trying to get better every day,” Orillion said after Jesuit won its second straight state title. “We set the goal to come back in here and repeat; and to get the job done and have everything come together like it did, it’s a good feeling. I’m proud of the guys; they take a lot of pride in fighting for our school and fighting for each other.”
The other finalists for
New Orleans Boys Prep Coach of the Year were
Tiffany Hill (Pope John Paul II Swimming),
Michael Odom (St. Martin’s Episcopal Basketball), and
Tom Taylor (Ponchatoula Basketball). Hill, in her first year as the head coach of the Pope John Paul II boys’ and girls’ swimming teams, directed the boys to their fourth straight LHSAA Division IV state championship despite having just seven boys competing. After leading St. Martin’s to the state semifinals in 2023, Odom took the Saints a step further this year as they advanced to the state championship game for the first time in program history. Taylor led Ponchatoula, a school that had not reached the boys basketball state semifinals since 1970, to its second straight state championship.
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.
