Ace pitcher Chris Olivier selected as New Orleans Athlete of the Month for August

Delgado Standout Led New Orleans Boosters to AAABA National Championship

NEW ORLEANS – Delgado pitcher Chris Olivier, who keyed the New Orleans Boosters’ AAABA national championship, has been selected as the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month for August. Monthly award-winners are selected by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Olivier was named co-MVP of the 2022 All-American Amateur Baseball Association (AAABA) National Tournament, striking out eleven batters in the championship game to earn his second win of the week on the mound. He had a total of 23 strikeouts and a 1.93 ERA over his two tournament appearances in less than a week to lead the franchise to its eighteenth AAABA title. Olivier was also nominated for the Point Stadium Award, recognizing him as the top amateur player to compete in Johnstown, Pa., during the month of August.

A native of Mandeville and a graduate of Lakeshore High School, Olivier is a pitcher at Delgado Community College.
Olivier earned the honor over four other top local athletes:

• Bryan Broussard also starred for the New Orleans Boosters at the AAABA National Tournament as he shared MVP with Olivier. The right-handed hitting Broussard, a graduate of Holy Cross High School in New Orleans, hit .524 (11-for-21) over six games during the week. His 11 hits included two doubles and a triple and he scored nine runs with 10 RBIs. Defensively, he had a 1.000 fielding percentage in the outfield with 14 putouts and one assist. Broussard is a sophomore at Delgado.

• Cameron Guitterrez, a rising eighth-grader at Haynes Academy, tossed a perfect game in the championship game of the Dixie Youth World Series Championship (12 & Under) to lead Girard Playground from the Jefferson Parish Recreation Department to the title. Guitterrez struck out 14 of the 18 batters he faced and allowed just one ball to leave the infield as Girard shut out West Robeson (N.C.), 3-0. In the state tournament and World Series, Guitterrez faced 41 batters, giving up only two hits while walking three and striking out 27. “I can tell you Cameron is just as exceptional off the field with his character, leadership and being a great teammate,” said his coach, Derek Delatte. “Cameron was a pleasure to coach.” Jefferson Parish had not won the 12-year old World Series since 1960. Girard went unbeaten all season.

• Hovan Jasmine, who recently started seventh grade at Kenner Discovery, won the national championship in the high jump at the AAU Junior Olympics in Greensboro, N.C. in early August while competing for the New Orleans Metro Stars. Jasmine won the 12-year old division with a height of 4-11.75. He also notched a distance of 16 feet, one inch in the long jump to finish fifth nationally. The AAU Junior Olympic Games featured over 19,000 athletes ages 8 to 18 from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Jasmine won both the high jump and the long jump at the AAU Regional Qualifiers in Hammond in July to advance to Greensboro.

• Kennedy Wade, an outside hitter for the Xavier University of Louisiana women’s volleyball team, produced kill-dig double-doubles in all four Xavier matches at Life University’s Running Eagles Classic in Marietta, Ga., Aug. 26-27. Her four-match totals included 73 kills, 10 aces, 60 digs and eight blocks. The junior from Gainesville, Fla., tied the school record for kills in a match with 27 against Bryan. She also had 24 digs against Bryan, making her the third player in Xavier history to reach 24 kills and 24 digs in the same match. Wade helped Xavier rally from a two-set deficit and an 8-3 fifth-set deficit to defeat Bryan. Her impressive stats came against four teams that qualified for 2021 NAIA nationals. As a result of these performances, Wade was selected Red River Athletic Conference Attacker of the Week.

The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee has been selecting an Amateur Athlete of the Month each month since 1957. The athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region in order to be eligible.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 100 Hall of Fame players, 51 Hall of Fame coaches and 20 Heisman Trophy winners in its 88-year history. The 89th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will feature top teams from the SEC and the Big 12, is scheduled to be played on December 31, 2022. 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 $2.2 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit www.AllstateSugarBowl.org.