Article Photos

Advertisement

PRINCETON - Nationally ranked West Liberty carved an unbeaten swath through the West Virginia Conference during a record-setting season and those records continued to fall Tuesday with the announcement of the coaches'All-WVIAC football team.

Ten of Coach Roger Waialae's Hilltoppers (10-1 overall, 8-0 WVC) earned first-team honors - the most first-team selections for any school since Shepherd had 11 first-teamers in 1999 - and West Liberty's seven offensive first-team selections are believed to be a modern-day league record.

Glenville State was a distant second to WLU overall with five first-teamers, while Charleston, Concord, Fairmont State, and Shepherd had three each. West Virginia Wesleyan supplied a pair and West Virginia State had one.

The No. 9 Hilltoppers, who lead the nation in scoring and total offense and are the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division II Super Region One playoff field, just missed making a clean sweep of the conference's major postseason awards.

Junior quarterback Zach Amedro was voted WVIAC Offensive Player of the Year while Waialae earned his first WVIAC Coach of the Year Award for football. Junior linebacker Clay Beeler came up just one vote short of the WVIAC Defensive Player of the Year Award, which went to West Virginia State linebacker Andrew Eggleton.

Amedro is only the third Offensive Player of the Year from West Liberty and the first since Frank Zebrasky won the 1979 award. Randy Little shared the 1974 award with Salem's Jack Deloplaine.

Waialae is the second Hilltoppers coach to win the honor. Bob Eaton was the 2000 WVIAC Coach of the Year.

Joining Amedro as first-team offensive selections were tailback Kevon Calhoun, receiver Eddie Hills - who earned his third first-team berth - and tight end Ryan Travis along with offensive linemen Ben Staggs, Tim Ickes and Nick Madia.

Joining Beeler as defensive first-team All-WVIAC honorees were linebacker Nick Harding another three-time first-team selection and cornerback Derrick Evans. Receiver Kashif Walls was West Liberty's lone second-team selection.

Receiver Willie Walker and offensive lineman Will Alvarez were honorable mention selections on the offensive side of the ball while defensive linemen Ryan Mirich and Matt Betz received honorable mention from the coaches along with safeties Jayson Keyser and Lawrence Robinson.

Following are brief capsules on the Hilltoppers' Coach of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year along with the rest of the first- and second-team selections.

• Roger Waialae: In his fifth season at the helm, Waialae has already risen to the top of the WVIAC coaching heap in terms of winning percentage with a record of 38-17 (.691) overall and 27-11 (.711) in league play. This season's squad posted the first 10-victory campaign and earned the first NCAA Division-II playoff bid in school history. The current 10-game winning streak is the longest at West Liberty since the 1950s.

• Zach Amedro: The 6-foot, 190-pound senior from Moundsville is putting together one of the best seasons in NCAA Division-II history. He's the only quarterback in the nation any division to throw for more than 300 yards in every one of his team's games and those 11 consecutive 300-yard passing games are an all-time NCAA Division-II record. Amedro is also one of only four Division-II quarterbacks ever to pass for more than 4,000 yards and 40 TDs in a season and is less than 300 yards away from hitting the 10,000-yard passing mark as a junior.

• Kevon Calhoun: The 5-11, 185-pound junior from Rockville, Md., has rushed for 1,275 yards and 16 TDs on 187 carries while adding 270 more yards and two more scores on 20 pass receptions.

• Ryan Travis: The 6-3, 235-pound junior from Massillon, Ohio, has 82 catches for 1,055 yards and has also completed two touchdown passes for 109 passing yards.

• Ben Staggs: The 6-4, 280-pound senior from Wooster, Ohio, is a four-year letterman and two-year starter who started all 11 games at left tackle for a much-improved Hilltopperd offensive line.

• Tim Ickes: The 6-3, 280-pound senior from Wooster, Ohio, is a versatile four-year letterman who split time between tackle and guard this season due to injuries along the offensive line.

• Nick Madia: The 6-1, 275-pound junior from Canyon Country, Calif., was a rock in the middle of the Hilltoppers offensive line, starting every game at center after transferring from a California junior college during the offseason.

• Clay Beeler: The 6-1, 225-pound junior from Chillicothe (Ohio) High School led the West Liberty defense with 87 tackles and 11 tackles-for-loss. He had a season-high 16 tackles in the double-overtime victory against then-No. 10 Charleston and came up with the game-saving interception in the last 2 minutes of the victory at Shepherd.

• Nick Harding: The 6-0, 225-pound senior from Lackawanna, N.Y., bounced back from a preseason illness that sidelined him for most of training camp and overcame a midseason appendectomy to finish second on the team with 77 tackles and 9 tackles-for-loss.

• Derrick Evans: The 5-10, 180-pound senior from Prichard led the conference with eight interceptions. His 26 passes defended lead the nation and rank No. 5 on the NCAA's all-time single-season chart.

• Kashif Walls: The 6-4, 205-pound junior from Camden, N.J., tied the all-time WVIAC record with 19 touchdown catches this season, a total that ranks No. 2 in the nation. He also ranks No. 2 nationally in receiving yards per game (117.6) and is among the nation's top five receivers at 21.8 yards per catch.