LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Forty student-athletes from 33 different schools have been voted to one of three 2024-25 NFCA High School All-America teams, the Association revealed on Friday afternoon.
For the second consecutive season, Calallen High in Texas topped all programs with four All-Americans — junior pitcher Jordyn Thibodeaux on the first team, sophomore outfielder Kylie Butcher on the second team, and both junior first baseman Braelyn Bailey and senior shortstop Brookelynn Meador on the third team. The Wildcats had three honorees last season, including Thibodeaux, who was a third teamer.
2024-25 NFCA High School All-Americans
This is the third career All-America honor for Bedford North Lawrence High (Ind.) senior catcher Ava Ratliff and Billy Ryan High (Texas) senior utility/pitcher Olivia Buettner. Ratliff previously earned first-team recognition in both 2021-22 and 2022-23, while Buettner was a first-team honoree in 2022-23 and earned second-team status in 2023-24.
Austintown Fitch (Ohio) sophomore outfielder Kaliana Ray joined Thibodeaux as a two-time All-American, after earning first-team recognition again this year.
Ray’s Falcons were one of the five schools that had multiple All-Americans this year. Austintown Fitch, Barrington (Ill.), Calvary Baptist Academy (La.) and Tonasket (Wash.) all had two players recognized.
Region VI had the most All-Americans of any geographic area this year with 10, followed closely by Region VIII’s nine. Both Region I and V had five student-athletes honored, while Regions III and X each had three, Regions IV and VII collected two apiece, and Region II had one.
There are 20 seniors, 11 juniors, six sophomores and three freshmen across the three All-America squads.
Meanwhile, speedy LeRoy High (Ill.) senior outfielder Emily Mennenga scored 2024-25 New Balance/NFCA Golden Shoe honors as high school’s most prolific base stealer. She had 60 stolen bases in 61 attempts (.984 success rate) and averaged 1.71 steals in 35 games for the Panthers this spring.
Mennenga, a second team All-Region honoree earlier this season, was chosen for the honor in a national vote of member coaches from a ballot that contained the top five All-Region-nominated basestealers.
Dripping Springs High’s (Texas) Lorelei Gamble is the Diamond Sports/NFCA High School Catcher of the Year after being voted the first-team All-American at that position. In 43 games, she recorded 133 putouts, had 11 assists, made just four errors and cut down eight of the 15 runners who attempted to steal on her.
Gamble’s 23 home runs set a single-season school record and she ranks first in program history in career homers (33) after completing just her sophomore season for the Tigers. She batted .547 this spring, with 29 runs, 13 doubles, five triples, 66 RBI, a 1.516 slugging percentage, .715 on-base average and 2.231 OPS. Of her 60 walks, 35 were intentional.
The aforementioned Ratliff is a two-time Diamond Catcher honoree, winning back-to-back in 2022 and 2023. Olathe Northwest High’s (Kan.) Reagan Hathaway, who earned the very first two honors in 2014 and 2015, is the only other student-athlete to win the award multiple times.
Voted by member head coaches, the awards honor student-athletes from the 10 NFCA high school regions. All players who received first team All-Region status this year were on the All-America ballot.
In order to be eligible for All-Region, student-athletes had to have been nominated by their NFCA-member head coach. All-Region honorees were chosen by a vote of member head coaches in their respective region.
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