ESPN RISE

In its third decade of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade joined with RISE Magazine to name junior pitcher JENNA IGNOWSKI of NILES HIGH as its 2007-2008 Michigan Softball Player of the Year.

The 5-foot-10 junior pitcher started 34-2 with a 0.03 ERA, recording 465 strikeouts in 230 innings this season to lead the Eagles to a 35-2 record entering the Class 2 state quarterfinals scheduled to begin June 10. A returning First Team All-State selection, Ignowski had already set a state single-season record with seven perfect games at the time of her selection. She also produced a .426 batting average, a .713 slugging percentage, 39 RBI and seven home runs through 37 games. She conluded her sophomore season of 2007 with a 24-10 record and a 0.34 ERA, recording a single-season school record 466 strikeouts in 242 innings.

Ignowski has maintained a 3.41 GPA in the classroom. A member of her school's Key Club International chapter, she also volunteers on behalf of multiple community-service initiatives, mentoring youth athletes as a pitching instructor at area clinics, reading to children as part of a literacy-outreach program, coordinating local fundraising efforts on behalf of the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and working on an election campaign for an area state representative.

"A couple of years ago, she was just a real hard thrower," said Kim Clay, Ignowski's summer coach with the Indiana Magic. "Playing travel ball really developed her into the pitcher she is. She had all the tools to do it, she needed that level of competition. I hate to think what she's going to be like next year."

Ignowski has verbally committed to a softball scholarship to Eastern Michigan University for the fall of 2009.