CLEVELAND, OH - Recent Denison University graduate and softball student-athlete Annabelle Calderon (Perris, CA/Orange Vista) has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 North Coast Athletic Conference Pam Smith Award.
A four-year starter behind the plate for the Big Red, Calderon leaves Granville as one of the most decorated players in program history. She is a two-time Diamond Sports/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Catcher of the Year (2024, 2025), a two-time NFCA First-Team All-American (2024, 2025), a three-time NFCA First-Team All-Region selection (2023, 2024, 2025) and was named a 2025 National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) All-American Strength and Conditioning Athlete of the Year. In NCAC competition, Calderon was only the fourth softball student-athlete in conference history to earn back-to-back Player of the Year honors (2024, 2025). She collected three all-conference certificates in her career, earning first-team recognition her junior and senior seasons and a nod to the second team during her rookie campaign. The Perris, California native graduated with numerous records to her name, including Denison and NCAC career marks in slugging percentage (.822), home runs (35), and total bases (356). In 2024, she set both the Denison and conference single-season record for slugging percentage with a 1.049 mark. Calderon owns program all-time records for batting average (.423) and doubles (56), and Big Red single-season records for batting average (.495, 2024), doubles (20, 2025), home runs (11, 2025), and on-base percentage (.549, 2025).
Calderon’s impact extended beyond the diamond, as she served as a three-year member of the Denison Student-Athlete Advisory Council, rising from representative to Vice President and ultimately President during her senior year. She also represented her peers as a member of the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics and the Strong Women Leaders Group at Denison, along with serving as a teaching assistant and interning with both Denison’s Department of Strength and Conditioning and Athletic Training staff. Calderon further developed her passion for sport performance and athlete well-being through internships with the University of Miami Department of Human Performance and Rutgers University Department of Sport Performance, focusing on nutrition, training, and recovery.
A standout in the classroom, Calderon graduated with a 3.79 GPA as a biology major. She was a 2025 Academic First-Team All-American and a 2025 and 2023 Academic All-District selection by College Sports Communicators (CSC). Also in 2025, she garnered the Denison Presidential Medal, the university’s highest student honor, and was selected as a NCAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. A seven-time Dean’s List honoree, she was also inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma honor society and received the R.J. Mullen Sports Medicine Scholarship Award in 2023. Calderon was named an Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and earned a place on the NCAC Dr. Gordon Collins Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Calderon’s leadership and service work were deeply rooted in supporting others. She volunteered with the Licking County Special Olympics and the Licking Valley Boys and Girls Club, organized a campus food drive to support the Food Pantry Network of Licking County, and played a key role in mental health advocacy through Mission 34. Calderon also partnered with Project Life Movement to raise awareness for bone marrow donation and mentored underclassmen to continue the initiative beyond her graduation.
Calderon was one of four outstanding nominees considered by the selection committee. The other candidates included:
Ollie Bream, Women's Swimming & Diving, Wooster
Sydney Geboy, Women's Swimming & Diving, Kenyon
Sophia Porter, Women's Cross Country and Track & Field, DePauw
The NCAC Woman of the Year Award commemorates former Wittenberg women’s basketball Head Coach and Associate Director of Athletics Pam Evans Smith, who had a profound impact upon the athletes she coached and the students she taught over an illustrious career that spanned more than two decades. She was the architect of the women’s basketball program with the most wins and highest winning percentage in NCAC history through 2007. A 1999 Wittenberg Athletics Hall of Honor inductee, Smith earned seven NCAC Coach of the Year awards and compiled a 401-170 record after taking the reins of a struggling program prior to the 1986-87 season. She led the Tigers to eight NCAA Division III tournament appearances, twelve 20-win seasons, and 11 NCAC regular-season championships.
As the NCAC winner, Calderon will be nominated, along with Kenyon's Sydney Geboy (Milwaukee, WI/Nicolet), for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award, one of the most prestigious honors the NCAA bestows. The award recognizes senior student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership. Each NCAA conference, and independent institutions, can submit two nominations for the NCAA Woman of the Year award as long as one of the nominees is a student-athlete of color or is an international student-athlete. The Woman of the Year Selection Committee will name the Top 30 honorees, which include 10 women from each division. From the 30 honorees, the committee will then select and announce nine finalists, three from each NCAA division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will review the finalists and name the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year. Later this fall, the national Top 30 honorees and nine finalists will be announced. The 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the 2026 NCAA Convention in Washington, D.C.
Calderon and Geboy will also represent the NCAC as the conference's nominees for the Division III Commissioners Association Female Sport Student Athlete of the Year.
NCAC Pam Smith Award Winners
2025 - Annabelle Calderon, Denison
2024 - Annalise Grammel, DePauw
2023 - Veronica Hardman, Ohio Wesleyan
2022 - Emmie Mirus, Kenyon
2021 - Megan Wong, Denison
2020 - Sydney Kopp, DePauw
2019 - Hannah Orbach-Mandel, Kenyon
2018 - Julia Wilson, Kenyon
2017 - Ellie Crawford, Kenyon
2016 - Haley Townsend, Kenyon
2015 - Maggie MacPhail, DePauw
2014 - Paige Gooch, DePauw
2013 - Leah Sack, Kenyon
2012 - Alisa Vereshchagin, Kenyon
2011 - Katie Navarre, Denison
2010 - Sarah Shinn, Ohio Wesleyan
2009 - Tracy Menzel, Kenyon
2008 - Erin Gorsich, Denison