Washington High School's Taylor Brown Earns Second Straight Gatorade Missouri Softball Player of the Year Honor
In its 39th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade announced Taylor Brown of Washington High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade Missouri Softball Player of the Year. It marks the second straight year Brown has been named the Gatorade Missouri Softball Player of the Year.
The award, which celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Brown as Missouri’s best high school softball player.
The state’s returning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-10 senior right-handed pitcher and first baseman led the Blue Jays to a 37-1-1 record and the Class 4 state championship this past season.
Brown compiled a 24-0 record with a 0.50 earned-run average and a program-record 263 strikeouts. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Metro Player of the Year, she also batted .548 with 16 home runs and 62 RBIs.
A member of her school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, Brown has volunteered locally with Link Crew, a student orientation leadership council. She also has donated her time as a softball coach at Washington School youth camps in addition to offering pitching lessons to elementary and middle school girls in Franklin County.
Brown maintained a 3.67 grade-point average n the classroom. She will continue her academic and softball career at Texas A&M University this fall.
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 and 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.
Two-time winner Brown joins recent Gatorade Missouri Softball Players of the Year Cierra Harrison (2021-22, Lee's Summit North High School), Julia Crenshaw (2020-21, Ft. Zumwalt West High School) and Mac Morgan (2019-20, Sherwood 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.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student- athletes, visit
playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow them on social media on Facebook at
facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and X(Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.
Taylor Brown, Gatorade Missouri Softball Player of the Year.
