Nov. 17, 2009

Complete 2009 Women's Soccer ESPN The Magazine Acadmeic All-America List

Towson, MD --- Annamarie Hofstetter, who ended her brilliant four-year Idaho State soccer career as the all-time career leader in assists in Idaho State and Big Sky Conference history, has been named ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-America as a midfielder, one of 12 players in the nation to earn first team status. Hofstetter becomes the first ISU women's soccer player to earn the honor, and the first Bengal since Trevor Bell earned the honor in football in 1996.

Hofstetter led the Bengals to the Big Sky Conference title game after being picked seventh in the preseason polls. During the season Hofstetter broke two major assist records. The first came on October 1st when she assisted on the only goal in a 1-0 win at Utah State, breaking the ISU career assist mark. Then in a 4-2 win over Northern Arizona she broke Katie McCoy's career assist record. For the season Hofstetter, who was also unanimously named First Team All-Big Sky, tied for the team lead in goals (5), assists (5), points (15), and game winning goals (2) as Idaho State went 10-8 for the season.

"I feel so honored to be considered an Academic All-American let alone be named to the first team and be a part of a select group of high academically achieving athletes," said Hofstetter, who learned of the honor from her coach Allison Gibson. "My personal academic success definitely would not have been possible without the support and flexibility of my coaches and professors here at ISU. I'm so grateful to them."

Academically, Hofstetter has a perfect 4.0 grade point average while majoring in microbiology. Hofstetter is a two-time First Team All-District VIII All-Academic selection, and only first teamers get the chance to advance to the national ballot. In 2007 as a sophomore she was a third team All-District VIII pick as well. The 12 members of the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Women's Soccer first team have an average GPA of 3.90.

"This an outstanding honor and thrill for ISU, Pocatello, our soccer program and obviously Annamarie and her family," said her Gibson of the Boise native. "Hof has been an outstanding cornerstone of this program for the past four years and she has set the bar high as a standard of excellence both in the classroom as well as the soccer field. After receiving unanimous votes for All-Conference this year from the Big Sky coaches and now this prestigious award, Annamarie has been fairly recognized for her amazing accomplishments during her time here at Idaho State."

Gibson added, "I am very proud of her and feel extremely honored to have had the opportunity to work with this amazing individual, my life is richer because of her."

The fact that Hofstetter is one of just 12 student-athletes on the team is a fact not lost on Frank Mercogliano, assistant athletic director who nominated her for the award.

"There are 322 programs in Division I, and if you figure 20 players per team, that's 6440 players, and only 12 get honored like this," said Mercogliano. "It's a tremendous honor, and a testament to how she conducts herself in her life. Whether she is on the field, in the classroom, helping with kids clinics, or working with P.A.W.S. doing community service, I think she is the perfect role model for any little girl wanting to see how to conduct oneself and be a success."