In its 39th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Lilly Goodwin of Desert Mountain High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade Arizona Softball Player of the Year. Goodwin is the first Gatorade Arizona Softball Player of the Year to be chosen from Desert Mountain High School.

The award, which celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Goodwin as Arizona’s best high school softball player. From CEOs and coaches to star athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase the power of sport, touting an all-star group of alumni that includes Amanda Freed (1997-98, Pacifica High School, Calif.), Cat Osterman (2000-01, Cypress Springs High School, Texas), Rachel Garcia (2014-15 & 2012-13, Highland High School, Calif.) and Ava Brown (2022-23 & 2021- 22, Lake Creek High School, Texas).

The 5-foot-8 sophomore left-handed pitcher and first baseman led the Wolves to a 29-4 record and a second straight Conference 5A state championship this past season. Goodwin compiled a 16-1 record with a 0.54 earned run average in the circle, striking out 205 batters in 103.1 innings pitched. At the plate, the Conference 5A Northeast Region Offensive Player of the Year finished with a .554 batting average to go with five home runs, 29 RBI and a .918 slugging percentage.

A member of her local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Goodwin has donated her time to Desert Mountain’s Ambassador’s Club and as a youth pitching coach. “I like everything about Lilly,” said Donnie Tizzano, head coach of Willow Canyon High School. “She is a bulldog in the circle, she has the ability to grind out at-bats and she hits the ball hard to all fields. Lilly is one of the most confident players in the state, probably in the country.”

Goodwin has maintained a weighted 4.57 GPA in the classroom. She will begin her junior year of high school 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 & 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.

Goodwin joins recent Gatorade Arizona Softball Players of the Year Kaitlyn Terry (2022-23 & 2020-21, Greenway High School), Jocelyn Erickson (2021-22, Sandra Day O'Connor High School) and Rylee Holtorf (2019-20, Sandra Day O'Connor 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, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $4.9 million across more than 1,600 organizations.

To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate studentathletes, visit playeroftheyear.gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/Gatorade and Twitter at twitter.com/Gatorade.