Cavs’ Kelly among Sugar Bowl honorees

De La Salle principal and head basketball coach Paul Kelly will receive one of eight prestigious annual honors at the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame inductions banquet, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Aug. 5.

Kelly guided the Cavaliers to the 2017 boys’ Division II basketball championship and a 30-4 record. The former De La Salle athlete, now in his fifth year as head coach, led the school to its first state basketball title since 1986 by beating University High, 81-69, in March. For his achievement, Kelly will be honored as New Orleans’ Outstanding Boys’ Prep coach, a recognition he will share with Edna Karr head football coach Brice Brown.

Brown’s Karr team completed a 15-0 season with a Class 4A championship by beating Neville, 34-21.

Others to be recognized at the ceremony in the Mercedes Benz Superdome will be Destrehan’s Angi Butler as Outstanding Girls’ Prep Coach; Alea Hobbs, LSU track and field, the Outstanding Female Athlete; Keytaon Thompson, Landry-Walker High, the Outstanding Male Amateur Athlete; Edna Karr’s football squad, the Outstanding Boys’ Prep Team; Destrehan’s girls’ basketball, Outstanding Girls’ Prep Team; and LSU gymnastic coach, D-D Breaux, Louisiana’s Outstanding College Coach.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl, through its sports awards selection committee, will soon announce its Amateur Athletes of the Month, the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2017 and the annual Jim Corbett Award winners (the Outstanding Male and Female Athletes in Louisiana).