The John Curtis basketball team, which was undefeated against Louisiana opponents, winning by an average of 26 points per game, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Girls Prep Team for 2025-26. 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 New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame class.
The top-seeded Patriots (25-1) capped off their dominant season with a startling 82-38 victory over No. 3 St. Joseph’s in the LHSAA Division I Select state championship game. It was John Curtis’ eighth state championship in the past decade. Curtis was led by several players who played on prior state title-winning teams, including seniors Ke’Sonja Nelson and Bailey Timmons. The pair was among four Curtis players that scored double-digit points in the state title game win. Curtis applied intense defensive pressure throughout the game with 32 points off turnovers.
“I’m so happy for the girls,” Curtis coach Alendra Brown said. “We wanted to use this opportunity in the (state) final to showcase our skills, and it was important that the girls came out strong and showed what they were of capable of while playing with poise and under control. I wanted them to just enjoy the moment and leave it all on the court.”
Curtis lost to Huntington in the state semifinals last year but gained revenge with a hard-fought 44-42 victory in this year’s semifinals. The Patriots, who finished the year 25-1, buried No. 17 Hammond, 53-13 in the regional and then stopped No. 8 Captain Shreve, 59-37, in the quarterfinals.
Curtis had regular season wins over Division I Non-Select state champion Zachary, Division II Select state champ University Lab, and Division II Select state runner-up Madison Prep. Its only loss came at the hands of Hoover, which won its sixth straight Alabama Class 7A state championship this year.
The Sugar Bowl also conducted a fan vote for its annual awards and the Outstanding Girls Prep Team selection was the Archbishop Chapelle bowling program. The top-seeded Chipmunks posted a dominant performance in the LHSAA bowling championship by defeating St. Amant 23-4 in the final following a 19-8 semifinal victory over St. Joseph’s Academy in the semifinals.
Joining John Curtis and Chapelle as finalists for the Outstanding Girls Prep Team were Archbishop Hannan Soccer and Dominican Soccer. Hannan capped a historic season by defeating three-time defending state champion Parkview Baptist in the LHSAA Division III state soccer championship match for the program’s first state title. Third-seeded Dominican finished an undefeated season (24-0-5) with a penalty kick shootout victory over top seed Mount Carmel to win the LHSAA Division I 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 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 athlete in the New Orleans area each month as well as a range of annual awards – the honors enter their 70th year in 2026.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 29 national champions, 114 Hall of Fame players, 55 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 92-year history. The 93rd Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will serve as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, will be played on January 15, 2027. 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 $2.6 billion into the local economy in the last decade.
-www.AllstateSugarBowl.org-
