(Peru, Neb.) – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced on their National Awards Day on September 15 that nearly 11,000 student-athletes were named as 2021-22 Daktronics NAIA Scholar-Athletes.
 
Nine Bobcat softball players were named to the list. The nine ties for the most of any Peru State athletic teams with the volleyball program for the 2021-22 year.
 
Seven seniors and two juniors were honored. They include seniors Bailey Deal (Tinmath, Colo.), Alana Krieser (Lincoln), Brooklyn Franco (Syracuse, Utah), Cheyenne Leach (Wymore), Morgan Wilke (Bakersfield, Calif.), Devyn Butorac (Westville, Fla.), and Layla Worthington (Holladay, Utah). The two juniors are Jerica German (Cortland) and Carli Kohout (Cortland).
 
Deal, Krieser, Franco, Leach, Wilke, and Worthington earned the recognition for the second-straight year while it was the first honor for the other three.

In order to be nominated by an institution's head coach or sports information director, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and must have achieved a junior academic status to qualify for this honor.
 
Deal majored in criminal justice – counseling while Krieser is an elementary education and early childhood education PK-3 major. Franco is a history major Leach is an art teaching and fine arts major. Wilke is studying kinesiology while Butorac graduated with a kinesiology major. Worthington graduated with a degree in criminal justice – counseling.
 
Both German and Kohout are elementary education majors.
 
In addition, these nine, along with their other teammates were one of Peru State's eight teams to be recognized as an NAIA Scholar Team. The Peru State softball team finished the year with a composite grade point average of 3.47 which was the second-highest team GPA.