SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco State's Kimberly DeBoer has been selected to represent the CCAA on the national stage as a nominee for the 2023-24 NCAA's Woman of the Year award.
DeBoer will be listed among the most elite student-athletes in each of the three divisions of the NCAA as the Woman of the Year Selection Committee will now choose the Top 30 honorees - 10 from each division - from the conference-level nominees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in the fall.
DeBoer is the reigning back-to-back CCAA Volleyball Setter of the Year. She became the first CCAA student-athlete to earn that award in consecutive seasons after leading the conference and ranking 15th in NCAA Div. II with 10.88 assists per set. DeBoer was the conference's only student-athlete to eclipse the 1,000-assist mark in the regular season. Along the way, she earned three CCAA Setter of the Week awards, and her 63 assists against Cal Poly Humboldt were a 2023 CCAA season-best. Her excellent season earned DeBoer AVCA All-West Region recognition and AVCA Honorable Mention All-American honors.
The native of Murrieta, Calif., also excels in the classroom, where she recently graduated with a degree in Kinesiology and a minor in Athletic Coaching. She was selected to the CCAA All-Academic Team for a D2 ADA Achievement Award. DeBoer collected the prestigious CSC Academic All-District award.
DeBoer embraced leadership roles at SF State, where she served as a team captain and the president of the Gators' Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She created an annual campaign to support student-athlete mental wellness. This included professional athlete panels highlighting challenging transitions in sports, suicide prevention training, mental performance activities, and partnering with the campus Health, Wellness, and Promotion Office to provide resources for student-athletes.
Her efforts to spread mental health awareness extended beyond the SF State campus to the 2023 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum, where DeBoer shared the concept of the mental wellness campaign with student-athletes and administrators from across the nation. She was named a recipient of an NCAA DII 50th Anniversary Scholarship and was recognized at the Division II Festival in Orlando, Florida, in May 2024.
"I am grateful for the connections made during my collegiate experience and look forward to contributing to the community that has provided so much," DeBoer explained. "My academic and athletic journey has inspired me to pursue a career where I can share my passion for empowering athletes to rise in any adversity that they face and embody their true 'why.'"
The NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized graduating female student-athletes since 1991 for excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership throughout their college careers. For more information about the program and previous winners, please visit ncaa.org/woty. This year, schools submitted a record number of 627 nominations.
