Kaitlyn Richardson

Classroom

A four-time member of the Dean’s List, Kaitlyn Richardson is a human resources and industrial relations major going for her Bachelor of Science in Business degree with a minor in marketing in the Carlson School of Management. She has a 3.722 cumulative grade-point average and hopes to be an assistant coach for softball once her athletic eligibility runs out. The Phoenix native is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, was a 2013 CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-American and Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and was a 2014 NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete. She also earned the University’s Patty Berg Legacy Award for excellence in competition and in the classroom while representing the values of the athletics department.

Character

Written by Gopher Head Coach Jessica Allister: “Katie’s genuine care for her teammates and tireless work ethic make her a great leader for our program. Katie is driven to be excellent and has the rare ability to inspire those around her to be excellent as well. Whether it be off-season workouts or in-season training, Katie’s commitment to being the best softball player she can possibly be sets her apart. Katie has been a driving force behind our program’s turnaround and will definitely leave the Gopher softball program much better off than it was when she found it.”

Community

In addition to impressive efforts on the field an in the classroom, Richardson has done 117-plus hours of community service with a plethora of different organizations in her time at Minnesota, including the following: East Side Neighborhood Services, HopeKids, the Kidstop Program, Camp Odayin, KinderCare Learning Center, the Minnesota Department of Education, ACES, Twins Fest, Special Olympics Minnesota, the Minnesota “M” Club, Hearts and Hammers, the Washburn Games, the American Cancer Society, Playworks Minnesota and the Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.

Competition

Minnesota’s third two-time All-American (2nd and 3rd team), Kaitlyn Richardson is a two-time First-Team All-Big Ten selection and a two-time NFCA First Team All-Great Lakes Region honoree. Richardson has helped the Gopher softball program reach new heights. She was a top-25 finalist for the USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year Award in 2014 and earned Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors after finishing the weekend with an .857 batting average, .889 on-base percentage, and 2.000 slugging percentage—a performance that helped yield Minnesota’s first conference tournament title since 1999. Richardson also ranks highly in the school’s record books, entering 2015 at second in career batting average (.394), third in career doubles (48), and fourth in career RBI (132) and home runs (30). She has played and started in all 164 of the team’s games since she arrived on campus and has won the team’s player of the year award twice. This year, Richardson will look to polish off her career as one of the best softball players to ever wear the Maroon and Gold after guiding the Gophers to their first-ever NCAA Super Regional last year. As a junior, she had a school-record .758 slugging percentage, had 12 multiple-RBI games and 16 multi-hit performances. She also added a team-best 11-game hitting streak, a 23-game reached-base streak, collected seven-game winning RBI (including two in NCAA regional play) and scored seven game-winning runs.