Ashley Holcombe

Classroom

Holcombe has appeared on the Presidents List, Deans List and Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges.  She is a member of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the All-SEC Honor Roll and received second team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Honors.  Holcombe maintains a 3.712 GPA in Marketing with a concentration in Consumer/Industrial marketing and plans to graduate in May of this year.  After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in Sports Marketing, Sales or Coaching.

Character

Holcombe captained the defense and pitching staff.  During her sophomore season of high school softball one of her close friends and teammates (Stephanie Phillips) was re-diagnosed with cancer and had to have surgery immediately, forcing her to miss the State Championship game.  The team went into the Championship game undefeated, but ended up losing so they had to play a second game.  Everyone said they were just waiting for Stephanie to show up, so she could be there to win the title. She came straight from the hospital and gave the team inspiration to win. Stephanie died Holcombe’s senior year, which had a dramatic effect on her life on and off the diamond. She wears a ribbon in her hair to this day with Stephanie’s name and number every game to honor her friend.

Community

A community advocate, Holcombe has volunteered with multiple organizations including, the Tuscaloosa Pre-K Initiative Volunteer at Oakdale Primary School and the Kiwanis Club Pancake Breakfast.  She has also taken time to speak to 6th grade girls on National Girls and Women In Sports Day and spent Valentine’s Day (2006) with Senior citizens at Capstone Village.  She also donated to Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger Canned Food Drive, helped with Patrick Murphy Softball School and the Patrick MurphyWinter Softball Clinic.  For the past four years, she has contributed to the Halloween Extravaganza and has donated every year to an Angel from the Salvation Army Angel Tree through SAAC.  She has also assisted with the Adidas Futures Softball Showcase in Atlanta, the Easter Seals Walk and with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts soon after the disaster struck in 2005.

Competition

Holcombe, a player highly regarded for her abilities behind the plate was a second team All-SEC selection in 2008, as well as a member of the SEC All-Defensive team, as she started and captained all 65 games for the Crimson Tide.  Defensively she had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in SEC games and a .988 overall percentage.  She gunned down 7-of-20 would be base stealers and picked off eight others.  During her junior campaign she hit a career-best .294 with 13 doubles, seven home runs and 25 RBIs.  Already in 2009 Holcombe has picked off four runners from behind the plate.