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OU Softball: Three Oklahoma Players Land Academic All-America

Alyssa Brito, Kelly Maxwell and Rylie Boone all earned the prestigious honor following the Sooners' fourth straight national championship.

John E. Hoover

Alyssa Brito
Alyssa Brito / John E. Hoover

By OU Media Relations

Oklahoman senior third baseman Alyssa Brito has been named College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-America DI Team Member of the Year, the CSC announced Tuesday.

Now a two-time Academic All-America pick, Brito is joined by three-time choice Kelly Maxwell (Second Team) and first-time honoree Rylie Boone (Third Team) to provide OU with an NCAA DI-leading three selections.

A psychology major at OU, Brito is a two-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) first team All-American, a four-time NFCA All-Region pick and a four-time all-conference selection. She played in 188 career games for the Sooners after transferring from Oregon, including 176 starts, finishing her career with a .395 batting average, 49 home runs and 167 RBI.

Brito earned first-team honors in 2023 while Maxwell, an OSU transfer, garnered second-team laurels in 2022 and was a third-team choice last season. Boone played all five of her seasons in Norman.

Under the direction of Patty Gasso, 23 Sooners have earned Academic All-America recognition. Brito marks the program’s first Team Member of the Year recipient since Lana Moran claimed the honor in 2000.

The CSC Academic All-America® program recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances on the diamond and in the classroom across four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, and NAIA. The Team Member of the Year will be advanced to the all-sport ballot with the winner to be announced later.

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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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