Wayne Stein, the head coach of a pair of state championship teams at St. Charles Catholic High School, was selected as the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s
Outstanding Boys Prep Coach 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 Sports Awards Committee has recognized outstanding high school coaches for the New Orleans area since 1962. This is the second time Stein has been honored for accomplishing the rare double championship – he also achieved the feat in 2021-22.
Stein led St. Charles Catholic football to its fourth state title overall and its third in his five seasons as head coach. He then followed that up by leading the Comets to the LHSAA Division II Select baseball state championship.
Selected as the Crescent City Sports Greater New Orleans Coach of the Year in football, Stein directed SCC to regular season victories over an eventual state champion in Dunham, a Texas power in The Legacy School of Sport Science, and state semifinalist Belle Chasse. In the playoffs, the Comets defeated Northside, E.D. White and University Lab, the last in overtime, before a dramatic, improbable 23-21 win over reigning state champion Archbishop Shaw for the Division II Select state title.
In baseball, the second-seeded Comets (30-9) advanced to the state finals for the sixth time in seven seasons. With the championship series tied up at one game apiece, SCC trailed 3-2 with two outs in the seventh inning of the deciding game.
After falling behind 0-2, Gabe Kugler belted a two-run double down the line to put the Comets on top. Ben Bordelon’s RBI single and Dax Pregeant’s walk with the bases loaded sent home two more runs for a 6-3 advantage. After top-seeded Vandebilt Catholic added two runs in its half of the seventh, Brayden Cortez struck out the final batter to clinch the championship.
“A lot of people use words like 'lucky' and 'horseshoe' to describe our program,” said Stein. “The truth is we got unmatched grit. There’s nobody that can match our grit.”
SCC swept No. 15 Lake Charles College Prep (6-0, 16-1) and No. 7 E.D. White (4-3, 13-8) to reach the semifinals where it took down No. 3 Teurlings Catholic (4-1, 4-1).
The Sugar Bowl also conducted a fan vote for its annual awards and the
Boys Prep Coach of the Year winner was
Pat Adams from the Newman baseball program. Adams directed Newman (30-8) to its first state championship since 2003. After losing the first game of the state championship series to top-seeded University Lab, 4-2, the Newman bats came to life as it erupted for 28 runs in two games to clinch the Division III Select state championship series.
The other finalists for
New Orleans Boys Prep Coach of the Year were
Brice Brown (Edna Karr Football) and
Robert Valdez (St. Augustine Football). Brown directed Karr to its second straight undefeated season and second straight LHSAA Division I Select state championship as they dominated opponents with an average margin of victory of 30.9 points. Valdez directed St. Aug to a 12-2 record and a state championship appearance for the first time since 1979.
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.
