Hope College senior Kylee Brouwer of Hudsonville, Mich. (Hudsonville HS) excelled on the softball diamond and in the classroom.
Earlier this month she was named a first-team Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division III All-American.
Now, she is being honored as a first team Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Brouwer was able to balance her outstanding four-year softball career with the academic demands of being a nursing major. A 3.76 GPA student, she received the college kinesiology department's Vanderbush Student-Athlete Award and the nursing department's Senior Sigma Xi Research Award. She is now pursuing a professional career as an emergency room nurse in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Brouwer is a two-time NFCA All-American. In 2006 she was named to the third team as
a catcher. This year she was honored as the designated player, a position
she assumed a month into the season after suffering a hand injury and
subsequent infection that affected her ability to throw the softball.
The injury certainly didn't impact her ability to hold and swing the bat as she set a Hope single season batting average mark (.533) with a record 65 hits and on-base percentage (.567).
In the conference tournament she batted 10-for-14 to key Hope's advance to the championship game.
Brouwer set Hope career records for batting average (.457), on-base percentage (.515), games played/started (162/159), most hits (228), most doubles (41), most triples (22), most total bases (331), runs scored (168), and stolen bases (70).
Brouwer is Hope's sixth CoSIDA Academic All-American joining Anne Hendrickson (1985), DeeAnn Knoll (19870-88), Johanna Pscodna (1992), Laurie Byington (1996), and Kim Grotenhuis (2000-01).