SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (2/3/08) - Senior shortstop Johanna Hedler (South Plainfield, N.J.) was honored at New Jersey's National Girls and Women in Sports Day as the Kean University Woman of the Year at Seton Hall University on Sunday, February 3. Student-athletes from Garden State colleges, universities and high schools were honored at a luncheon prior to the Seton Hall-West Virginia women'a basketball game.

Hedler, a three-time New Jersey Athletic Conference softball all-star and Dean's List student, has also been named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America Scholar Athlete, the Kean Female Scholar-Athlete and to the NJAC First-Team All-Academic Squad.

On the diamond, the three-year starter and two-time captain enters her senior season ranked twice in the top five of single season homeruns and is tied for second in career homeruns (11) and triples (8).

An early childhood education major, Hedler (pictured right with Head Softball Coach Margie Acker) has been a National Student-Athlete Day Honoree and is a member of the Kappa Delta Pi and Lambda Alpha Sigma Honor Societies.

In the community, Hedler has participated in the Play Doh Drive for Childrens Tomorrow Fund, the 20th Legislative District's Annual Turkey Basket Drive, the Tinton Falls Walk for Education, the Community Food Bank in Hillside, N.J., and Kean's Healthy Halloween.

National Girls and Women in Sport Day celebrates the athletic achievements of women and the positive well-being associated with sports participation, while also recognizing the continuing struggle for equality for women in sports. NGWSD, chartered by the United States Congress in 1986, is honored in all 50 states. This year's theme is, "All In!