Hall of Fame
Brenna Eck Hill was an All-American softball player for Shippensburg from 2001-04 who played catcher and designated player and graduated with the second-most RBIs in school history (126). A career .313 hitter, Hill totaled 189 hits and was a three-time All-PSAC Performer and a two-time NFCA All-Region performer who started 206 of the team’s 207 games in a four-year run in which the Raiders went 147-60 and won back-to-back PSAC and NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championships.
Hill burst onto the scene as a freshman in 2001, earning NFCA All-Mid-Atlantic Region First Team and All-PSAC Eastern Division Second Team honors at catcher. She hit .336 with a career-high six home runs while also totaling 32 RBIs, 12 doubles and scoring 26 runs in 47 games. As a sophomore catcher in 2002, Hill was named to the All-PSAC Eastern Division First Team after hitting .303 with a career-high 16 doubles (fifth-most in SU single-season history). She also hit five homers, totaled 38 RBIs, and scored a career-high 32 runs.
As a junior in 2003, started all 51 games for a Raider team that posted a 37-14 record, won the PSAC Championship, won the Mid-Atlantic Region Championship, and finished in fifth place at the NCAA Championships. SU beat West Florida before losing to Georgia College & State and St. Mary’s.
Hill’s best season came as a senior in 2004, which also happened to be one of SU’s best seasons in history. The Raiders went 48-6, finishing in third place at the NCAA Championships after repeating as PSAC and Mid-Atlantic Region Champions. Eck was named to the All-America Second Team as a designated player in addition to spots on the All-Mid-Atlantic Region First Team and All-PSAC Eastern Division First Team. She posted career highs of 41 RBIs, 55 hits and 82 total bases in addition to a .346 batting average.
Over the course of 206 career starts, Hill hit .313 with 15 homers, 126 RBIs, 47 doubles, 88 walks, 291 total bases and 110 runs scored. Her 47 doubles ranked third in school history.
After graduating from Shippensburg, Hill earned a master's degree in clinical exercise physiology from Temple in 2007. While at Temple, she became a certified strength and conditioning specialist/coach (CSCS) and a sports performance coach (USA Weightlifting) while a graduate teaching assistant in the kinesiology department. Hill went on to work as a wellness coordinator in Culpeper, Virginia for two years while coaching softball and basketball at local high schools.
After getting married, Hill furthered her studies and later earned her PhD in human physiology from Penn State University in 2013. During her studies she received the graduate school’s teaching certificate during this time and earned the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award. She moved to Texas for a Post-doctoral fellowship at UT Southwestern for six months before serving as a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas for 5 ½ years. Hill has since returned to the area and is currently a biology professor at Penn State Harrisburg. Her family also fosters rescue dogs and volunteers with local rescue organizations.
