Bama’s Brittany Rogers wins NCAA Top VIII award

TUSCALOOSA | Brittany Rogers has been named a winner of the NCAA’s Top VIII award, collegiate athletics’ highest honor for the combination of athletics, academics and community service.

Rogers, a four-time All-America outfielder from Dacula, Ga., is the first University of Alabama softball player to win the award.

Rogers was honored along with Courtney Kupets (Georgia, gymnastics), Venessa Lee (Pittsburg State, track), Jeff Lerg (Michigan State, hockey), Kent Raymond (Wheaton, basketball), Sarah Stevens (Arizona State, track), Tim Tebow (Florida, football) and Amanda Blumenherst (Duke, golf). Only eight recipients from across all sports in all divisions at NCAA member schools are chosen for the honor each year.

“I think it’s just incredible when you look at the others honorees and then you have an Alabama softball player mentioned with those student-athletes, it’s quite a pedestal to be on,” Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said. “They call it Top VIII for a reason. To see (Florida quarterback Tim) Tebow on there, who is a great kid and everybody in the country knows him, I think that kind of validates the award in itself because everyone knows him as a Division I football player and a Heisman Trophy winner.

“Service projects and service to the community is a big part of the award, and Brittany has certainly been a leader in that area. It encompasses everything: on the field, off the field, classroom. I guess this is the most all-around award you can get.”

Rogers hadn’t even heard of the award before she was nominated.

“You know, until they told me about the nomination I wasn’t really familiar with it, but now that I put a little research into what it is and who has won it, I’m humbled,” she said. “You look at Tim Tebow and Jackie Joyner-Kersee — I grew up wanting to be her.”

The Top VIII honorees are selected by the NCAA Honors Committee, which is composed of eight athletics administrators and nationally distinguished citizens who are former student-athletes. The honorees will be recognized Jan. 15, 2010, at the NCAA Honors and Delegates Celebration at the NCAA Convention in Atlanta.

“I feel the people who have helped me to this point deserve the recognition,” Rogers said. “It’s been a team effort since the day I was born.

“I feel like I’ve been a kid who wanted to play softball with my teammates and be a light for somebody if I could. I’m just a kid from Georgia. I’m no better than anybody else.”

Rogers will graduate next May with a degree in education. She was a student teacher at Huntington Place Elementary in Northport during the fall semester and will be assigned to a school to student teach in the spring.

Rogers was a four-year starter who led Alabama to three top-10 softball finishes, including semifinal runs at the Women’s College World Series the last two years, and finished her career ranked first in stolen bases (198), second in batting average (.417), runs (256) and hits (343), and fifth in on-base percentage (.463).

An elementary education major, Rogers won an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and is a Southeastern Conference Boyd McWhorter Postgraduate Scholarship recipient. She is also the winner of UA’s 2009 Paul Bryant Student-Athlete Award, presented each year to the top male and top female student-athlete at Alabama.

On the community service side, Rogers volunteered with organizations such as Project Angel Tree, Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and the Easter Seals walk, and also visited various local elementary and high schools.

Alabama’s past winners are Randy Hall (football, 1975), Steadman Shealy (football, 1980), Meredith Willard (gymnastics, 1997), Andree’ Pickens (gymnastics, 2002), Kristin Sterner (gymnastics, 2003), DeMeco Ryans (football, 2006) and Beth Mallory (track and field, 2007).

Reach Tommy Deas at tommy.deas@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0224.