Country Day’s Ellie Schneider earns New Orleans Athlete of the Month honor

NEW ORLEANS (April 14, 2023) – Softball star Ellie Schneider from Metairie Park Country Day School has been selected as the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month for March. Monthly award-winners are selected by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Greater New Orleans Amateur Athletes of the Month

In the month of March, Schneider was a perfect 12-0 with a 2.98 ERA as a pitcher while at the plate she batted .641 (25-for-38) with a home run and 24 RBI in the 12 games played for the Country Day softball team. The Cajuns ended the month with a perfect 18-0 record. Schneider was the leading scorer and rebounder while leading the Cajuns basketball team to a playoff win and into the regional round of the playoffs. In volleyball, Schneider was the state’s Most Valuable Player as Country Day won its seventh straight state championship, the fourth with Schneider, taking the Division V championship. Schneider was named the championship game match Most Valuable Player with 28 kills and 2.5 blocks and an ace in the title match. Schneider signed a volleyball scholarship with Kansas in November.

Schneider earned the honor over four other sensational area athletes.

• Seth Alexander, a junior with the Xavier University of Louisiana men’s track and field team, earned NAIA All-America honors after his third-place finish in the triple jump at the NAIA Indoor National Championships March 3 in Brookings, S.D. After finishing 11th in the nation in 2022, he improved to 14.87 meters (48 feet, 9 1/2 inches) this year to earn third place overall. After the indoor nationals, Alexander had a pair of national-qualifying marks in the triple jump, including registering a personal best of 15.06 meters at the Southern Miss Invitational on March 31.
• Ashton Catalinotto led the Brother Martin bowling team to an unprecedented fifth consecutive LHSAA boys bowling championship March 30. The senior fired a team-best 640 series in the championship match against H.L. Bourgeois to earn Outstanding Bowler honors as the Crusaders finished with a 16-1 overall record and claimed their seventh title since 2015. In five playoff matches, all during March, Catalinotto averaged 213 in 14 games as Brother Martin defeated Comeaux, South Terrebonne, Denham Springs and previously unbeaten East Ascension en route to the final. His regular-season average of 222 ranked third in the state and tops in the New Orleans region.
• Allen Graves was named the Most Outstanding Player for the LHSAA Division I nonselect boys basketball championship as he scored 23 points to go with 16 rebounds and five blocked shots as No. 3 seed Ponchatoula defeated No. 1 New Iberia, 63-48, in New Iberia on March 11. Graves’ performance capped a historic season for Ponchatoula (29-7) – it was the Green Wave’s first state semifinals appearance since 1970 and its first-ever appearance in a state championship game. In a 62-55 state semifinal win over No. 2 Ruston on March 9, the 6-9 junior had 20 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists. On March 3, he scored 11 points with six boards, six steals, five assists and three blocks in a 62-48 quarterfinal win over Sulphur. For the month, he averaged 18.0 points and 13.7 rebounds per game.
• Kristen O’Handley, a graduate student with the Tulane University women’s track & field team, finished seventh in the pentathlon with a school record 4,277 points at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. Her point total marked the fourth time that she broke the school record in the pentathlon during the indoor season. O’Handley’s performance allowed her to earn Tulane’s first indoor track All-American honor since 2016. The Honolulu product set three indoor personal bests at the 2023 NCAA Championships in the 60m hurdles, the high jump and the 800m. She aided Tulane to its highest NCAA end of the season ranking, No. 43, since 2007.

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, 102 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 89-year history. The 90th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2024. 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 nearly $2.4 billion into the local economy in the last decade.