Maryknoll power hitter Liliana Thomas is the Gatorade Hawaii Softball Player of the Year, the Gatorade Company announced today.
The award recognizes outstanding athletic excellence, high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character on and off the field. Gatorade is handing out awards for spring sports even though no regular-season games were held due to the COVID-19 crisis.
A 5-foot-8 junior catcher and third baseman, Thomas hit 19 home runs with 63 RBIs last summer and fall for her Firecrackers Brashear 16-and-under club team against national competition. In leading the Firecrackers to a fifth-place finish at the Colorado Fireworks Power Pool tournament last July, Thomas collected six home runs and 22 RBIs in 12 games. A two-time Honolulu Star-Advertiser All-State second-team selection for the Spartans, she is ranked as the nation’s No. 57 recruit in the Class of 2021 by Extra Inning Softball.
Liliania Thomas, who will be a senior next season, was a Maryknoll captain the last two seasons. (From FirecrackersBrashear.com).
According to a Gatorade news release,Thomas has a 3.31 grade-point average and has volunteered locally as part of a fundraising campaign to benefit breast cancer research and donated her time at a veterans home and as a student ambassador at Maryknoll. “Liliana, as a sophomore, was the youngest team captain in all my years of coaching,” Spartans coach John Uekawa said. “It says a lot about her because it meant that the upperclassmen respected her and knew that she earned that status. Her leadership role goes beyond her performance on the field.”
Thomas gave an oral commitment to play softball on scholarship at Arizona State beginning in the fall of 2021.
Gatorade Hawaii softball players of the year
>> 2020: Liliana Thomas, Maryknoll
>> 2019: Aleia Agbayani, ‘Iolani
>> 2018: Mari Foster, Roosevelt
>> 2017: Jocelyn Alo, Campbell
>> 2016: Jocelyn Alo, Campbell
>> 2015: Shearyna Labasan, Maryknoll
>> 2014: Aubree Kim, Miliani
>> 2013: Jaci Young, Punahou
>> 2012: Keiki Carlos, Mid-Pacific
>> 2011: Keiki Carlos, Mid-Pacific
>> 2010: Katie Manuma, Campbell
>> 2009: Brittney Guro, ‘Iolani
>> 2008: Amber Waracka, Kamehameha
>> 2007: Nicole Alconcel, Baldwin
>> 2006: Corrie Nishikida, Pearl City
>> 2005: Sarah Weisskopf, Punahou
>> 2004: Tajia Acierto, Kapolei
>> 2003: Courtney Kessell, Kailua >> 2002: Leo Sing Chow, Kamehameha
>> 2001: Shannon Tabion, Baldwin
>> 2000: Mitzi Ing, ‘Iolani
>> 1999: Estee Okumura, Punahou
>> 1998: Kelly Kaahili, Kamehameha
