CHICAGO — Gaylord’s Aubrey Jones was announced Friday as the 2023-24 Gatorade Michigan Softball Player of the Year.
The junior Blue Devils is the first Gatorade Michigan Softball Player of the Year to be chosen from Gaylord High School for the award, which celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community.
Jones, a 5-foot-10 shortstop and right-handed pitcher, has led the Blue Devils (35-4) a Big North Conference title as well as Division 2 district and regional championships.
Ahead of Sunday’s regional games, Jones had compiled a 13-0 record in 64 innings with a 0.48 ERA and 108 strikeouts against just eight walks through 37 games. She also batted .417 and blasted 23 home runs, picking up 73 RBI and scoring 58 runs. A whopping 34 or her 39 hits went for extra bases and she posted an OPS of 1.698.
On Sunday, Jones collected a double, home run and four RBI with a run scored in the championship win over Escanaba. She pitched five innings, allowing two runs on six hits with two strikeouts. Jones also had a double and two runs in the semifinal against Essexville Garber.
Ranked as the nation’s No. 43 position player in her class by Softball America, Jones also played in the Future Stars Game at the 2023 Women’s College World Series.
A member of the National Honor Society, Jones has donated her time as a chapter leader for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and she has volunteered as a youth softball instructor. Jones has maintained a 3.92 GPA in the classroom, and she has verbally committed to play softball on scholarship at Oklahoma State University in the fall of 2025.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school 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.
Jones joins recent Gatorade Michigan Softball Players of the Year Reganne Bennett (2022-23, Novi High School), Ava Bradshaw (2021-22, South Lyon High School), Kali Heivilin (2020-21, Three Rivers High School) and Gabi Salo (2019-20, Escanaba High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
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 $4.9 million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.