OMAHA, Neb. (NCBWA) – Florida State shortstop Alex Lodise, coming off the 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and numerous national honors, is the 38th recipient of the 2025 Dick Howser Trophy presented by The Game Headwear.
Lodise paced the Seminoles to a 42-16 record, the NCAA Tallahassee Regional title, runner-up in the NCAA Corvallis Super Regional. He helped the team to 91 victories over the past two seasons as a starter for the Seminoles, who posted their best back-to-back campaigns since the 2012 and ’13 FSU squads were 97-34 under late ABCA Hall of Fame head coach Mike Martin.
Also, the 2025 ACC Defensive Player of the Year follows two other all-time greats in FSU history as winners of the Howser Trophy. Outfielder J.D. Drew was the 1997 winner, while fellow Major League great in his post-Seminoles career catcher Buster Posey was the 2008 awardee.
The FSU team captain and resident of St. Augustine, Florida, finished his junior season with a team-and ACC-best 95 hits for ninth place in NCAA Division I individual statistics, 170 total bases (11th in DI), a .394 batting average (23rd nationally), a .705 slugging percentage, 17 home runs and 68 RBI to lead coach Link Jarrett’s nine. He also hit safely in 48 of the Seminoles’ 58 contests and recorded 31 multi-hit performances.
One of his most notable achievements in 2025 was a March 25 walk-off grand slam to complete the single-double-triple-homer batting cycle and give the Seminoles an 8-4 win over traditional rival Florida.
He has also excelled in the field, making just five errors in his first 216 chances and having a .977 fielding percentage. He helped turn 34 double plays in FSU’s first 55 contests and paced the Seminoles to some of their highest national rankings in recent years at second and third in NCBWA Top 25 and similar polls.
Lodise, who starred at Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns, Florida, prior to beginning his college career, originally signed with the North Florida Ospreys. There, he was a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American, the Atlantic Sun Conference Freshman of the Year, a first team All-ASUN Conference and the UNF Male Student-Athlete of the Year with 16 home runs, 47 RBI and a .306 average in 55 games.
After moving to FSU prior to the 2024 season, he started all 62 games for the national semifinalist-bound Seminoles with nine home runs, 44 RBI, 50 runs scored and a .281 average, while providing above-norm defensive play at shortstop.
The 2024 and ’25 All-ACC Academic Team and ACC Academic Honor Roll member helped the 2024 Seminoles advance to the NCAA World Series, hitting safely in all nine NCAA postseason clashes and reaching base in each of his last 23 contests last season. To finish his sophomore season, he joined teammate Daniel Cantu with back-to-back home runs in an elimination tussle with eventual champion Tennessee.
Lodise also has starred in summer amateur baseball with the Asheboro Zookeepers of the Coastal Plain League, the Hyannis Harbor Hawks of the Cape Cod League and the New Britain Bees of the Futures Collegiate League.
Of note, the 2025 honoree grew up in the same area of St. Augustine, St. Johns and Jacksonville as NFF College Hall of Fame QB and 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, who starred at Nease High School before moving on to Florida. Lodise’s cousin Kyle Lodise was the 2025 starting shortstop at Georgia Tech.
He nabbed the award from among a sterling group of fellow 2025 finalists in Arkansas junior shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, UCLA sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky and Tennessee junior starting pitcher Liam Doyle.
The announcement of the trophy honor was made at a national news conference Friday after extensive national balloting by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association at Charles Schwab Field – site of the NCAA Men’s College World Series June 13-22/23.
“Alex Lodise had had one of the top individual seasons in Florida State and Atlantic Coast Conference history,” Howser Trophy chairman David Feaster said. “He joins two of the greatest players in Florida State history and fellow Dick Howser Trophy winners J.D. Drew and Buster Posey in winning this award. Alex also is a prime example of the true spirit of Dick Howser and this trophy -leadership, moral character and courage – and his attributes helped the Seminoles enjoy another tremendous season.
“The Dick Howser Trophy committee also wishes to thank the NCAA, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Major League Baseball, the MLB Network, Florida State head coach Link Jarrett, FSU athletics communications, Alex’s family, and many others who have helped make this the most prestigious award in college baseball for five decades.”
A Florida native, Dick Howser was twice an All-America shortstop at Florida State (1957-58), then head coach of the Seminoles in 1979 after a career as a Major League player and coach. After one year in the college ranks, he 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 not only honors a player with some of the best ability nationally, but it also is based upon the tenets of -leadership, moral character and courage. The top draft choices for the upcoming Major League Baseball free agent draft usually are among the Howser Trophy finalists, but this is not a criterion for the eventual winner.
NCBWA 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. The NCBWA has been the voting mechanism for the Howser Trophy annually since 1998.
The Howser Trophy was created in 1987 shortly after Howser's death. Previous winners of the Howser Trophy are Mike Fiore, OF, Miami (Fla.), 1987; Robin Ventura, 3B, Oklahoma State, 1988; Scott Bryant, 1B-P, Texas, 1989; Alex Fernandez, P, Miami-Dade Community College South, 1990; Frank Rodriguez, P, Howard College (Texas), 1991; Brooks Kieschnick, UT-P, Texas, 1992 and 1993; Jason Varitek, C, Georgia Tech, 1994; Todd Helton, 1B, Tennessee, 1995; Kris Benson, P, Clemson, 1996; J. D. Drew, OF, Florida State, 1997; Eddy Furniss, 1B, LSU, 1998; Jason Jennings, UT-P, Baylor, 1999; Mark Teixeira, 1B, Georgia Tech, 2000; Mark Prior, P, USC, 2001, Khalil Greene, SS, Clemson, 2002; Rickie Weeks, 2B, Southern U., 2003; Jered Weaver, P, Long Beach State, 2004; Alex Gordon, 3B, Nebraska, 2005; Brad Lincoln, P/DH, Houston, 2006; David Price, P, Vanderbilt, 2007; Buster Posey, C, Florida State, 2008; Stephen Strasburg, P, San Diego State, 2009; Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice, 2010; Taylor Jungmann, P, Texas, 2011; Mike Zunino, C, Florida, 2012; Kris Bryant, 3B, San Diego, 2013; A.J. Reed, DH-P, Kentucky, 2014; Andrew Benintendi, OF, Arkansas, 2015; Seth Beer, OF, Clemson, 2016; Brendan McKay, DH-P, Louisville, 2017; Brady Singer, P, Florida, 2018; Adley Rutschman, C, Oregon State, 2019; No Award, COVID-19, 2020; Kevin Kopps, P, Arkansas, 2021; Ivan Melendez, 1B, Texas, 2022; Paul Skenes, P, LSU, 2023; and Charlie Condon, 3B-1B, Georgia, 2024.