CHICAGO, IL — In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade announced this week Hannah Wells of Coahoma High School is the 2024-25 Gatorade Texas Softball Player of the Year. Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their success on the field, in the classroom and in the community. The award distinguishes Wells as Texas’ best high school softball player, and she joins an impressive group of alumni that spans CEOs, coaches and star athletes such Cat Osterman (2000-01, Cypress Springs High School, Texas), Rachel Garcia (2014-15 & 2012-13, Highland High School, Calif.), Ava Brown (2022-23, Lake Creek High School, Texas) and Addisen Fisher (2023-24, Bend High School, Oregon).
The 6-foot senior right-handed pitcher led the Bulldogs (35-1) to the 3A Division II state championship this past season, the program’s third straight state title. This made the Bulldogettes the first team in Texas to have a three-peat win for the State Softball Championship. This season, Wells compiled a record of 22-1 in the circle with a 0.44 earned run average and struck out 258 batters in 127.2 innings pitched, recording 67 percent of her outs by way of the K. She recorded 15 shutouts in 23 starts, including a no-hitter and two perfect games. Wells also batted .602 with 75 RBI and a state single-season record 31 home runs, bringing her career total to a state-record 86 long balls. She mashed 48 extra-base hits in 108 at-bats, slugging 1.639 to post an OPS of 2.287 and an isolated power percentage of 1.037.
A National Honor Society member, Wells has volunteered locally on behalf of Tate’s Place, a non-profit organization devoted to providing for those in need through food banks, shoe drives and Thanksgiving meals, among other initiatives. She has also donated her time by picking up trash in her community, particularly after sporting events, and by offering instruction to youth softball players.
“She is incredibly hard to game plan against, because you have to prepare high school kids to compete against Hannah, who is already at the level of a dominant Division I [college] pitcher,” said Joseph Morelion, head coach at Stanton High School. “At the plate, Hannah is the best hitter I’ve been able to witness with my own eyes at any level. The ball is going to be hit hard—it’s just a matter of where and how far.”
Wells has maintained an A average in the classroom and was also the Salutatorian for Coahoma High School’s graduating Class of 2025. This fall she’ll attend the University of Texas in Austin and has committed to playing softball for the university.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports – 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. As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student athletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com.
(Photo courtesy of Coahoma ISD Communications)
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