Emily Allard

Classroom

Allard is a multiple-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree who will graduate in June with a degree in communication studies. The communications studies major completed an internship in 2011 with Northwestern’s athletics marketing department, and is planning on pursuing a career in sports marketing. After much deliberation, Allard declined an invitation to the USA Softball National Team selection camp in the summer of 2012 to instead pursue a summer internship with Wilson in which she played a key role in product research and development. She maintains a professional relationship with multiple former colleagues with potential post-graduate opportunities on the table.

Character

A career prep outfielder, Allard accepted a move to shortstop during her freshman season, practicing the position and overcoming many bumps in the road while “learning on the job.” She now has started 146 games at short entering her senior season. Allard has never missed a game Northwestern has played during her career despite an injury that has required surgery. The testament to her character here is her dedication to rehab and hard work that has allowed her to keep her terrific range on the field, her explosion out of the box and her All-American caliber speed on the base paths. Allard is exceptionally close to her family, leading to a poignant moment her sophomore season. Her father, Bill, had not seen her play competitively since high school due to his schedule as an over-the-road truck driver. He re-arranged his schedule to surprise Allard at a game in San Diego that year, and after team-wide tears at their emotional meeting pre-game, Allard went out to break the school single-game record for hits with a 5-for-5 day.

Community

One of the more involved student-athletes in our community, Allard has volunteered her time to visit local schools to conduct Q&A sessions with students of all ages. Every Halloween she participates in the Women’s Club of Evanston “Fairy Tale Trail,” a trick or treat night for kids with disabilities. Allard spends time exposing local disadvantaged youth to sports participation at NU’s Field Day. She volunteers to paint fire hydrants purple with local kids in conjunction with the City of Evanston’s “Paint Evanston Purple” initiative. She also helped raise money for NU women’s swimming’s “Breaststroke 4 Breast Cancer,” which raised over $11,000 for local cancer research. Throughout her college career, Allard has coached little league and travel ball teams in Northern California and Evanston.

Competition

Emily was the winner of the 2011 NFCA Golden Shoes Award as the nation’s top base-stealer. She was also a Top-25 finalist for USA Softball Player of the Year in 2011. The three-time All-Big Ten and NFCA All-Region selection broke Northwestern’s single-season batting average record with a .491 mark in 2011, while also stealing 45 bases in 46 attempts. Over the last two seasons, Allard had hits in all but 10 of Northwestern’s games. That breaks down to hits in 91 of 101 games NU played, including 42 multi-hit performances. Entering her senior season, Emily is just two stolen bases shy of Northwestern’s all-time record of 118. She has had hitting streaks of 22 and 18 games during her career, and enters 2013 with an active 15-game hitting streak. Throughout her career she holds a .410 batting average with 125 runs scored, 221 hits and 117 steals, one shy of the Northwestern career record established 16 years ago. In NCAA Tournament play, Allard is a career .500 hitter, including a .600 average against seeded teams.