NEW ORLEANS – Following his effort in the tornado cleanup efforts in late April, Louisiana Tech track and field runner Conner Killian was named the recipient of the Jimmy Collins Award today and will receive the honor Aug. 10 at the Allstate Sugar Bowl's Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Banquet.
 
Killian, a graduate of Archbishop Rummel, joins Joe Scheuermann, a tremendously successful coach of the Delgado Community College baseball team, as the two recipients of the award this year selected by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee and sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
 
While there are many different categories of awards presented by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, some years the committee finds people deserving of recognition who do not necessarily fit into one specific category. For that reason, the Committee presents the Jimmy Collins Awards to outstanding individuals and organizations who have made an impact in their own special way.
 
Collins was a longtime New Orleans sportswriter who is credited with creating the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards and forming the awards committee in 1958. This year the Committee chose to recognize two individuals for exhibiting excellence, but in widely different ways.
 
Killian, a Metairie product, serves as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at Louisiana Tech. He was the third-best finisher for the Bulldogs at the Conference USA Cross Country Championships; he also competed in the C-USA indoor championship, but suffered an injury during the outdoor season and was confined to a walking boot when a deadly tornado hit Ruston on April 25.

The tornado ravaged the Louisiana Tech campus and Ruston community, including many residential areas. Despite his injury, Killian was a leader among the Louisiana Tech student body in the clean-up effort on the campus and in the community.

"Conner was one of the first students to arrive on the scene after the tornado," said Louisiana Tech Director of Athletics Tommy McClelland. "He immediately began to remove debris as he organized a small team of other students to help clean up. Being a forestry major he had a chainsaw and started cutting limbs and removing trees from damaged areas. All of this started within hours of the tornado devastation and continued for many days.

"Not only has he helped on our campus, but he has gone out into our community into the residential areas and helped as well. He has done all of this while wearing a boot due to an injury sustained while competing as a member of our track and field team. When I think of what a servant looks like, I will now think of Conner."

This isn't the first time Killian has been honored for his work around the community. He was the recipient of the Conference USA Spirit of Service Award in the fall of 2018. He is also a two-time C-USA All-Academic Team honoree and a three-time C-USA Academic Medalist and member of the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll.

"I am truly honored to be receiving the Jimmy Collins Award," said Killian. "Louisiana Tech University and Ruston are my home, and I will always do everything I can to help the Ruston community, especially in the wake of a disaster."

Meanwhile, in New Orleans, Joe Scheuermann was adding to his tremendous legacy on the baseball field. Delgado's 10-4 win on April 9 marked the program's 1000^th victory under Scheuermann. Now in his 29^th season as the Dolphin's head coach, Scheuermann became the 30th baseball coach in National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) history to reach the milestone, joining nine active coaches. 

Scheuermann has a career mark of 1000-490 and he ranks ninth among active coaches in the all-time NJCAA wins category. In addition, in January, Scheuermann was announced as a member of the National Junior College Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame's Class of 2019; he was inducted into the Hall in May in Grand Junction, Colo. He is the first college coach in Louisiana to reach the thousand-win mark at the same college and the first junior college baseball coach to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee began in 1957 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. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater 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 amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month - the honors enter their 62nd year in 2018. To be eligible, an athlete must be a native of the greater New Orleans area or must compete for a team in the metropolitan region.