Missouri State University

Missouri State senior softball player Katie Martin has been selected as the female recipient of the Missouri Valley Conference's Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award, Valley Commissioner Doug Elgin has announced.  The Missouri Valley Conference Faculty Athletics Representatives Committee selected Martin from a field of league student-athletes who met the Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award criteria, including academic achievement, athletics excellence and service and leadership.

Martin, a native of Baldwin City, Kan., achieved a cumulative 3.94 grade point average, while majoring in medical technology at Missouri State.  She led the Bears this spring with a .307 batting average and posted team-best totals in hits (46), runs (30), doubles (9), on-base percentage (.412), and walks (27).  Martin also stole 16 bases to rank second in the MVC.  In her first season in center field, Martin committed only one error and recorded a .986 fielding percentage.  Her 2007 postseason accolades include all-MVC Second Team, MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team, and she was selected to the All-Senior All-America Team in voting for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.

Martin has been the softball representative on Missouri State’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and has been active in MSU softball’s fundraising and community service efforts throughout her four years at Missouri State.  Including her honors this past spring, she was a three-time all-MVC scholar-athlete, two-time CoSIDA academic all-district selection, and two-time all-MVC pick for the Bears.

The first-ever recipient of the Honda Award of Merit in 1996 for outstanding achievement in women's collegiate athletics, Dr. Charlotte West was a driving force for more than 40 years in the area of advancement of women's sports. 

On June 30, 1998, she retired from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, after serving in the capacities of head coach, associate athletics director, interim athletics director and senior woman administrator during her 41 years with the Missouri Valley Conference-member institution.  West coached five women's sports from 1957-75 and, in 1982, was among the first group of women inducted into the SIUC Athletics Hall of Fame.