In its 27th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade  Company, in collaboration with ESPNHS, named Allison Foster of Christian Academy its 2011-12 Gatorade Kentucky Softball Player of the Year.  The award, which recognizes not only athletic excellence,but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field.

Foster, a 5-foot-6 senior pitcher and outfielder, batted .500 with 10 home runs, 39 runs scored and 31 RBIs this past season, leading the Centurions (28-8) to the 7th Region quarterfinals.  Foster also set the KY state record for career triples with 46.

In the circle, she was 24-6 with a 0.80 ERA and 302 strikeouts in 176 innings pitched.  Allison has signed to play with Bellarmine University.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball and boys and girls track and field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.  The selection process is administered by ESPNHS and the Gatorade high school sports leadership team, which work with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.