Five Oklahoma Players Named Finalists For National Player of the Year Award

Alex Storako, Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings, Nicole May and Jordy Bahl represent 20 percent of the field of players up for the game's top honor.

John E. Hoover | Apr 19, 2023

By OU Media Relations

Five Oklahoma softball student-athletes were named top 25 finalists for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, the organization announced the list Wednesday.

Redshirt senior Alex Storako, juniors Jayda Coleman, Tiare Jennings and Nicole May and sophomore Jordy Bahl combined for the most representatives from one school. Oklahoma leads the way with five finalists while five schools are second with two athletes each.

OU's five finalists rank as a program high for the USA Softball Top 25 list, while the Sooners have had at least two representatives on the list for six straight seasons.

It marks Bahl, Coleman, Jennings and Storako’s second time being a Top 25 finalist and first for May.

A Sooner has won the award four times in the last 10 seasons, including the past two seasons with Jocelyn Alo going back-to-back in 2021 and 2022. Keilani Ricketts claimed OU’s other two, also winning in consecutive seasons in 2012 and 2013.

The Top 25 Finalists will be narrowed down to 10 athletes on May 3, followed by the Top 3 Finalists set to be released on May 17. The 2023 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will be revealed prior to the Women’s College World Series, which is scheduled to take place June 1-9 at the Softball Capital of the World.

Published Apr 19, 2023

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.