North DeSoto’s Ciara Orgeron tops Week 34 Shreveport Times Athlete of the Week voting
North DeSoto’s Ciara Orgeron garnered enough votes this week to win the Times online poll for Athlete of the Week, sponsored by Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission.
A standout softball player for the Griffins, Orgeron becomes the second North DeSoto winner in the non-football poll for the 2021-22 school year. Orgeron joins previous winners that include Captain Shreve’s Elexa Beaudoin, Northwood’s Tucker McCabe and Calvary’s KJ Kennon.
Orgeron and her supporters racked up 15,689 votes, a solid 48% of the 32,535 votes cast in the weekly online recognition. Those numbers allowed Orgeron to top a field of 13 additional candidates, including Northwood baseball player Brendan Burns, who made a strong run for the recognition with 6,942 votes (21%).
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Orgeron was named the Most Valuable Player in the LHSAA Class 4A state championship game last weekend after hitting back-to-back home runs to lead the Lady Griffins to an 11-1, run-rule-shortened contest for their second consecutive title. She was 4 for 5 with nine RBIs and four runs scored in two state tournament games.
“Ciara is a classic example of someone who has worked hard to make herself into the player she is today,” NDHS coach Tim Whitman said. “She is all about her team first and herself second and deserves everything she gets. She is a player who makes plays on defense look easy and I don’t remember the last time she made an error.”
Orgeron will receive a backpack, a boxed lunch combo and some additional swag courtesy of Raising Cane’s. Winners also receive two tickets to the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Nations League Tuesday contest in the Brookshire Grocery Arena this summer featuring the USA volleyball team playing on U.S. soil for the first time since winning the gold medal in Tokyo. The U.S. will play the Dominican Republic on May 31, Canada on June 3, Brazil on June 4 and Japan on June 5.
Others on the 34th ballot the school year were Elana Franks, Calvary softball; Tia Holmes, Many softball; Jeremiah Boudreaux, Airline track; Lilly Garrett, Ruston track; Rondisia Williams, Southwood track; Sedric Applewhite, Bossier track; Kayla Ballard, Caddo Magnet track; Austin Anderson, Haughton baseball; Preston Hill, Benton baseball; Zach Schoenborn, Parkway baseball; Noble Means, Loyola baseball; Avery Bryan, Captain Shreve cheer and Martavia Willis, Huntington cheer.
They were chosen because of their performance the previous week or because their names were submitted by their coach. The Times poll is posted each Monday at shreveporttimes.com with a new slate of student-athletes in high school sports other than football.
The Times online only poll runs through Thursday midnight. The poll includes northwest Louisiana athletes competing in volleyball, cross country, swimming, cheerleading, basketball, soccer, wrestling, powerlifting, indoor and outdoor track, baseball, softball, golf, tennis, bowling, gymnastics and fishing while those sports are in season.
Jimmy Watson covers Shreveport-Bossier area sports. Email him at jwatson@shreveporttimes.com and follow him on Twitter @JimmyWatson6.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
Week 1: Taylor McCabe, Northwood volleyball
Week 2: Daly Nagot, Benton volleyball
Week 3: Mariah Hintze, Ruston volleyball
Week 4: Averi Phillips, Haughton volleyball
Week 5: Hannah Wilson, Northwood volleyball
Week 6: Aiden Heard, Loyola cross country
Week 7: Catherine Jurkovich, Airline volleyball
Week 8: Lorelei Freling, Ruston volleyball
Week 9: Alex Adcock, Captain Shreve cross country
Week 10: Abby Schroeder, Benton volleyball
Week 11: Taylor Nash, Loyola volleyball
Week 12: Logan Olsen, Airline wrestling
Week 13: Andrew Stuart, Byrd soccer
Week 14: Mar’Quarius Johnson, Southwood basketball
Week 15: Chloe Phillips, North DeSoto soccer
Week 16: Ernie Perry III, Airline wrestling
Week 17: Dalyn Davis, Nat. Central basketball
Week 18: Nick Bailey, Mansfield basketball
Week 19: Jakyran Pierson, Caddo Magnet soccer
Week 20: Bowman Lovell, Providence basketball
Week 21: Dayne Reed, Benton soccer
Week 22: Mackenzie Soul, Byrd soccer
Week 23: Katie Smith, Byrd soccer
Week 24: Marquis Harris, Bossier basketball
Week 25: Tahj Roots, Bossier basketball
Week 26: KJ Kennon, Calvary basketball
Week 27: Elexa Beaudoin, Captain Shreve softball
Week 28: Tucker McCabe, Northwood baseball
Week 29: Mikel-Ann Ricardo, Captain Shreve softball
Week 30: Thuy Chau, Caddo Magnet tennis
Week 31: Luke Bloxom, Northwood baseball
Week 32: Christina Gegg, Benton softball
Week 33: Trent Lape, Parkway baseball
Week 34: Ciara Orgeron, North DeSoto softball
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: North DeSoto’s Orgeron tops Week 34 Shreveport Times Athlete of the Week