The following is a press release from Gatorade:Â
CHICAGO — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade on Thursday announced Larissa Preuitt of Hartselle High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Alabama Softball Player of the Year. Preuitt is the first Gatorade Alabama Softball Player of the Year to be chosen from Hartselle High School.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Preuitt as Alabama’s best high school softball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year award to be announced in June, Preuitt joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports.
The 5-foot-7 senior center fielder led the Tigers to a 51-9-1 record and the Class 6A North Regional playoffs this past season. Preuitt batted .552 with 13 triples, seven home runs, 60 RBI, 103 runs scored and 86 stolen bases. A three-time All-State selection, she’s ranked as the nation’s No. 14 prospect in the Class of 2022 by Extra Inning Softball.
Preuitt has participated on a service-mission trip to Guatemala, has served as a bible studies instructor and has volunteered locally on behalf of the Night to Shine organization.
“Larissa Preuitt is a stud,†said Lindsay Vanover, head coach at Sparkman High. “She is legit on all sides of her game — offense, defense, speed and knowledge of the game.â€
Preuitt has maintained a 3.80 GPA in the classroom. She has signed a National Letter of Intent to play softball on scholarship at the University of Alabama this fall.
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 & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.
The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.
Preuitt joins recent Gatorade Alabama Softball Players of the Year Annabelle Widra (2020-21, Spain Park High School), Shelby Lowe (2019-20, Pickens Academy), Kaylyn Dismukes (2018-19, Holtville High School), and Leanna Johnson (2017-18, Brantley High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
Gatorade has a long-standing history of serving athlete communities and understands how sports instill valuable lifelong skills on and off the field. Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward†platform, Preuitt has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. Preuitt is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300 organizations.
Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds of professional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit or follow us on social media on Facebook at , Instagram at and Twitter at .
