Rock Quartet Earns Honors

Rock football quartet earns first-team Hansen all-region honors

BROOKFIELD, Ill. — Nine members of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference runner-up Slippery Rock University football team were named Monday afternoon as members of the Don Hansen Football Gazette All-Region Committee’s 2013 NCAA Division II All-Super Region One squad.

The Rock had the second-highest number of first-team selections and tied for the second-highest total number of student-athletes honored among the 49 Super Region 1 teams.

Region champion West Chester placed five players on the first team, while The Rock had four and regional runner-up Shepherd and PSAC champion Bloomsburg had three each.

Shepherd led the overall squad with 10 selections, Bloomsburg and Slippery Rock had nine each, New Haven posted seven and West Chester, Shippensburg and East Stroudsburg each had six players honored.

Senior quarterback Nigel Barksdale,

senior punter James McCombie, senior wide receiver John Schademan and redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Cory Tucker each earned first-team status to headline the list of Rock student-athletes honored.

Senior cornerback Anthony Saunders earned second-team all-region honors from the Hansen committee,

while senior linebacker Quindell Dean, junior safety Austin Miele, senior nose guard Tony Papley and senior defensive tackle Derek Walker were named to the Hansen committee’s third team.

The first-team and second-team All-Region selections advance to a national ballot from which the 2013 Don Hansen NCAA Division II All-America team will be named later this month.

The Hansen committee all-region honors were the latest in a long list of postseason awards presented to Rock football student-athletes.

All nine Hansen first-team all-region selections earned first-team All-PSAC-West honors, as did senior linebacker Gary Allen.

The Rock also placed five players on the All-PSAC-West second team. That group included juniors Teddy Blakeman (running back), Julian Harrell (tight end) and Matt Peacock (defensive line), sophomore wide receiver Jaimire Dutrieuille and redshirt freshman running back Shamar Greene.

All four of The Rock’s first-team Hansen committee all-region performers had previously received Daktronics first-team all-region honors in voting by sports information directors. McCombie subsequently earned second-team All-America honors in that competition.

Dean had earned second-team All-America honors from BSN and was also a second-team Daktronics all-region selection.

Barksdale, McCombie and Schademan also earned third-team All-America honors from Beyond Sports Network, while Tucker was named to the BSN’s honorable-mention list.

Rock head coach George Mihalik was named by his peers as both the American Football Coaches Association Division II Super Region 1 and PSAC-West Coach of the Year award recipient.

The Rock finished the 2013 season with a 9-3 win-loss record, claimed their second PSAC-West championship in the last three seasons and earned their first NCAA Division II playoff berth since 1999. The Green and White were also ranked 21st in the final AFCA Division II Coaches’ Top 25 national poll and 23rd in the final D2Football.com national poll.

Bloomsburg senior running back Franklyn Quiteh, the 2013 recipient of the Harlon Hill Trophy awarded to the top Division II football player in the nation, was named as the Hansen committee’s Super Region 1 Offensive Player of the Year, while Shippensburg defensive end Jake Metz was selected as the region’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Shepherd freshman return specialist C.J. Davis garnered the Special Teams Player of the Year honor, New Haven cornerback Najae Brown was named Freshman of the Year and West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan received the Super Region 1 Coach of the Year honor.

The Don Hansen team carries out the legacy of long-time small college football advocate Don Hansen, who passed away at age 75 on Aug. 29, 2010. Hansen started and published Don Hansen’s National Weekly Football Gazette for three decades, selecting NCAA Division II All-America teams for the first time in 1988.  Don Hansen’s Football Gazette began selecting Division II All-Region squads in 2003.

Super Region 1 is compiled of 49 football-playing universities from four conferences including the PSAC, Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Mountain East Conference and Northeast-10 Conference. A total of 40 teams and 130 players were represented on this year’s Hansen all-region teams.

Bob McComas
Sports Information Director
Slippery Rock University
1 Morrow Way - Room 201 Old Main
Slippery Rock, Pa. 16057
Office: 724.738.2777
Fax: 724.738.4761
Cell: 724.421.5658
Email: robert.mccomas@sru.edu
www.sru.edu

A ROCK SOLID Education

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Four SRU Players Named to First Team All Region

Rock place 4 on Daktronics football first-team all-region list

WEST CHESTER, Pa. – Five members of Slippery Rock University’s Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference runner-up football team were named Thursday as Daktronics All-Super Region 1 performers.

Selected as first-team all-region performers by sports information directors at the 49 NCAA Division II schools that comprise Super Region 1 were Rock senior quarterback Nigel Barksdale, senior punter James McCombie, redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Cory Tucker and senior wide receiver John Schademan.

Rock senior linebacker Quindell Dean earned second-team honors.

All five Rock players named to all-region status had previously received first-team All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-Western Division honors.

The four first-team all-region selections are now eligible for Daktronics All-America honors that will be awarded later this month.

Barksdale, who earned the PSAC-West Offensive Athlete of the Year honor and was one of seven Super Region 1 finalists for the Harlon Hill Trophy awarded annually to the top NCAA Division II player in the nation, rewrote the SRU single-season offensive record book this fall.

A native of San Jacinto, Calif., Barksdale set new SRU records for single-season passing yards (3,736), passing touchdowns (30), pass attempts (427) and pass completions (247) as well as total offense (4,199).
Barksdale also set a Rock record with six touchdown passes in the season-opening win Sept. 7 at Northwood (Mich.) and recorded four of the top five and five of the top seven single-game passing yardage totals in school history.

Barksdale led the PSAC in passing yards and total offense, ranked second in pass completions and attempts and fourth in TD passes.

A former standout at Mount San Jacinto College in California, Barksdale threw for 400 or more yards in three games this season, headlined by a 465-yard performance at Northwood.

Barksdale ended the regular season ranked in the top 10 nationally in three categories. He was fifth in passing yards, sixth in total offense (349.9 yards per game) and seventh in passing yards per game (318.2). Barksdale also ranked 13th in touchdown passes.

A four-time PSAC-West Offensive Athlete of the Week and the only player to earn that honor more than once, Barksdale ranks fourth on the PSAC's all-time, single-season total offense chart and fifth on the passing yards list.

Barksdale's favorite receiver this fall, Schademan set new school records for single-season pass receiving yards (1,484), single-season pass receiving touchdowns (15) and single-game pass receiving yards (229, Sept. 28 vs. Mercyhurst).

Schademan, who was one of The Rock team captains this fall, ranked second among PSAC receivers in receptions (77), receiving yards and receiving TDs and was third in yards per catch with a 19.3 mark and.

A native of Pittsburgh and graduate of Bethel Park High School, Schademan finished the regular season ranked fifth nationally in receiving TDs, sixth in total receiving yards and 11th in receiving yards per game (123.7).

Schademan, a third-year member of The Rock program after starting his collegiate career at Division I Colgate University, ended the season ranked fourth on SRU's single-season pass receptions chart.
Dean ranked second on the team in total tackles with 76 (43 solo, 33 assisted) in 11 games played and started at strongside linebacker. Dean ranked ninth in the PSAC in tackles for loss with a team-high 14.5 for -47 yards.

A native of Uniontown and graduate of Uniontown High School, Dean also intercepted two passes, one of which he returned for a touchdown in the NCAA first-round game at Winston-Salem State, batted down six passes and recorded two quarterback hurries.
Dean ended the regular season ranked 24th on SRU's career tackles list with 239. He ranked 18th in career solo tackles with 125 solo and was 14th in career tackles for loss with 32 for -155 yards.

A fourth-year member of The Rock program after being redshirted as a true freshman at Division I Toledo, Dean has recorded nine quarterback sacks, one shy of being included in the school's top 25 in that category.

McCombie, The Rock's starting punter for the last four seasons, led the PSAC this fall with a career-best 43.2 yards per punt average to finish his career with a 40.3 yards per punt average.
A native of Nicktown and graduate of Bishop Carroll High School in Ebensburg, McCombie had 14 punts that traveled 50 or more yards this fall, headlined by a career-best 74-yarder in the season opener at Northwood.

McCombie also had 16 of his 62 punts land inside the opponents' 20-yard line this fall and only nine result in touchbacks.

Tucker, a second-year starter from South Park (South Park High School), anchored a young, no-senior, Rock offensive line that paved the road to a school-record 500 points.

Behind the Tucker-led frontline, The Rock offense led the PSAC in total offense (536.5 yards per game), passing offense (354.3 ypg) and scoring offense (43.3 points per game).

Those marks ranked fourth, sixth and seventh, respectively, among all 168 NCAA  Division II football-playing institutions. The Rock also ranked sixth in in the 16-team PSAC in rushing offense with a 182.3 ypg average

SRU, one of six teams that earned a berth in this year’s NCAA Super Region 1 playoffs, was one of four schools that had four student-athletes named to first-team honors.

Shepherd and West Chester, the two teams that will meet in Saturday’s regional championship game, also had four first-team all-region performers, as did Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champion Bloomsburg.

Bloomsburg senior running back Franklyn Quiteh was selected as the Daktronics Super Region 1 Offensive Player of the Year, while Shippensburg senior defensive end Jake Metz won the Defensive Player of the Year award.

Bob McComas
Sports Information Director
Slippery Rock University
1 Morrow Way - Room 201 Old Main
Slippery Rock, Pa. 16057
Office: 724.738.2777
Fax: 724.738.4761
Cell: 724.421.5658
Email: robert.mccomas@sru.edu
www.sru.edu

A ROCK SOLID Education

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh