THE FLATS – Sophomore center fielder Drew Burress has been listed as a semifinalist for the prestigious Dick Howser Trophy presented by The Game Headwear, the Dick Howser Trophy Committee, in conjunction with the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association announced today. Burress is one of 57 semifinalists to be named and one of 10 from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Burress is the only player in Division I with at least 50 RBI (54), 20 doubles (20), 45 walks (45), 15 HR (15) and 60 runs (65) this season. He owns a .322 batting average with a 1.110 OPS (6th best in the ACC). He has a career slugging percentage of .743, the best in all of Division I and one of only four Power 4 players with a career slugging percentage over .700.
He began his season with a walk-off grand slam in the first weekend of the season, putting an exclamation point on a 7-run ninth inning comeback in the second game of the season, over Old Dominion. It was his first walk off hit as a Yellow Jacket and the first of his 15 home runs so far in 2025.
He became the fastest Jacket in program history to reach 30 career home runs – doing so in just 73 games, a full 20 games faster than the previous record holder, 1st round draft pick, Kevin Parada. He became the 17th member of the 40-HR club at Georgia Tech when he launched two home runs in the series finale against Western Carolina (May 4) and is currently the only underclassmen in college baseball with 40 career home runs. He is two HR shy of breaking into Georgia Tech’s all-time Top 10 for home runs in a career and 17 shy of the program record (57 HRs) hit by 1994 Dick Howser Trophy winner Jason Varitek.
Georgia Tech is one of seven programs with multiple Dick Howser Trophy winners in its history with Jason Varitek (1994) and Mark Teixeira (2000), both under the coaching of Danny Hall. There has only been one coach in the award’s history to have three different Howser Trophy winners at the same institution, Cliff Gustafson (Texas).
This year’s 57 candidates hail from 20 different NCAA Division I conferences, Division I independent Oregon State and 39 different schools. The Southeastern Conferences leads with 17 semifinalists ahead of the Atlantic Coast with 10, Big 12 with six, the Big Ten with five, the Sun Belt with three, Southland with two, independent OSU with two, and the Western Athletic, CAA, Southern, Ivy, Big East, Atlantic 10, Atlantic Sun, Southwestern Athletic, Big South, Mountain West, and Big West with one.
The 2025 news conference with the winner will be held at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, the home of the College World Series, for the 13th year. The winner also will be unveiled on MLB Network in a special national presentation at 9:30 a.m. (CDT) prior to the Friday, June 13, news conference in Omaha at 10 a.m. (CDT) before the first game of the 78th NCAA College World Series in the Schwab Field Media Room.
About Dick Howser Trophy
The Dick Howser Trophy, presented by The Game Headwear, is given in memory of the former Florida State University All-America shortstop and major league player and manager who died of brain cancer in 1987. The trophy is regarded as baseball’s most prestigious award. Criteria for consideration of the trophy include performance on the field, leadership, moral character and courage – all qualities that were exemplified by Dick Howser’s life.
A Florida native, Howser was twice an All-America shortstop at FSU (1957-58), then coached the Seminoles in 1979, after a career as a major league player and coach. After one year coaching in the college ranks, Howser returned to the majors to manage the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals and won the World Series with the Royals in 1985. The baseball stadium on the Florida State campus is named for Howser.
“The Dick Howser Trophy was founded shortly after his death by a few friends of Dick’s in the St. Petersburg Area who played, coached and worked with him,” David Feaster, chairman of the Howser Trophy Committee said. “This award is presented not to be best professional prospect among all NCAA Division I players but to the player who best exemplifies the traits most associated with Dick Howser – leadership, moral character and courage. So many of the previous winners have not only gone onto solid careers in professional baseball, but most have distinguished themselves in community service and the business world from the lessons learned during their college careers. We also are proud to be working with the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association as the voting body for the 28th consecutive year, and this group helps us receive a nationally representative vote for the Howser Trophy.”
NCBWA voting membership includes writers, broadcasters and publicists. Designed to promote and publicize college baseball, it is the sport’s only college media-related organization, founded in 1962.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
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