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Oklahoma SS Grace Lyons Lands Another Big 12 Honor

The Sooners' captain and three-time conference defensive player of the year takes home one last award after winning her third straight national championship.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma SS Grace Lyons Lands Another Big 12 Honor
Oklahoma SS Grace Lyons Lands Another Big 12 Honor /

Oklahoma shortstop Grace Lyons landed one more award on Wednesday.

The Sooners' outgoing senior, who guided her squad to three straight national championships, is the Big 12 Conference Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The league announced its spring honors in a press release.

Lyons, from Peoria, AZ, became the heart and soul of this year's team as she was elevated to captain and helped steer the Sooners to a 61-1 record, the best in NCAA softball history. The Sooners became just the second team in NCAA history to repeat with a third consecutive title.

Among Lyons' accomplishments:

  • She held a 3.89 GPA while pursuing an MBA and 89 percent participation this season.
  • She batted .331 with nine home runs and 34 RBIs, earning her third consecutive Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors.
  • She became a three-time CSC Academic All-American (2021-23) and a five-time Academic All-Big 12 honoree (2019-23).

The Big 12 Conference established its Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in 2012-13. A recipient is named in each conference-sponsored sport. Every Big 12 institution nominates one individual per sport with the winners selected by a vote of the league head coaches for that sport, who are not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes. Scholar-Athlete of the Year nominees must be a junior or senior (athletic and academic standing), have a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher, participate in at least 20 percent of the team’s scheduled contests and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution.

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John E. Hoover
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.

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