opeka High junior NiJaree Canady has been named Gatorade Kansas Softball Player of the Year after leading the Trojans to a 25-0 record and the Class 6A state championship. [File photo/TSN]
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
NiJaree Canady has piled up honor after honor during her junior year in basketball and softball for Topeka High and added arguably the biggest of them all on Friday when she was named the Kansas Gatorade Softball Player of the Year.
An All-Stater in both basketball and softball, Canady's Gatorade honor comes after she helped lead the Trojan to a perfect 25-0 season and High's first-ever Class 6A softball championship this spring.
The Gatorade award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field.
As the state winner, Canady, Topeka High's first Gatorade softball winner, is now a finalist for the Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year award to be announced later this month.
Canady was a star for the Trojans as both a pitcher and hitter en route to earning Centennial League and All-Shawnee County player of the year honors.
Canady compiled a 21-0 record in the pitching circle with a miniscule 0.26 earned run average while striking out 226 batters in 107.2 innings. Canady turned in three complete-game pitching wins in the 6A state tournament, striking out 16 batters in all three games and not allowing an earned run.
Gatorade Kansas Softball Player of the Year NiJaree Canady hit .478 with 13 homers and 49 runs batted in for Topeka High, which went 25-0 en route to the Class 6A state championship. [File photo/TSN]
Canady hit .478 on the season with 13 home runs and 49 runs batted in and gave Topeka High a 1-0 state semifinal win over Gardner-Edgerton with a solo home run. The Trojans then closed out their state-title run with a 7-1 win over Olathe North.
A member of the Topeka High student council, Canady was the junior class president and carries a weighted 4.46 grade point average. She also has volunteered locally at homeless shelters and nursing homes and has donated her time as a youth basketball coach.
Canady, ranked as the nation's No. 19 softball recruit in the Class of 2022 by Extra Inning Softball, is the first Shawnee County player to earn the Gatorade softball honor since Seaman's Lauren Mills, now at Wichita State, was the 2018 recipient.
