By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
Dante Brown of Fort Hays State football was honored as one of 10 finalists for the 2018 Fred Mitchell Outstanding Placekicker Award. The award is given annually to a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Division II, Division III, NAIA or NJCAA placekicker that excels on the football field and in the community.
On Monday (Dec. 10), Roldan Alcobendas of Eastern Washington University was named the 2018 Fred Mitchell Award winner, one of the top kickers in FCS this year. Eastern Washington is one of the top programs in FCS, currently in the semifinals of the FCS Playoffs. Alcobendas is a perfect 15-of-15 on field goal attempts so far this year, while knocking through 62 PAT tries this year as well. Alcobendas participated in numerous community service projects at EWU and holds a 3.23 GPA as a business administration marketing major with a minor in communications. Like Brown of FHSU, Alcobendas also serves as EWU’s punter and averages an impressive 45.3 yards per punt this season. Also like Brown, Alcobendas was an all-conference first team selection at both kicker and punter.
Brown was one of four kickers from NCAA Division II that made the finalist list, along with three from FCS and three from NCAA Division III.
Brown had one of the most successful kicking seasons in NCAA Division II history, converting 28 field goals out of his 33 attempts. His 28 field goals are second most for a season in Division II history, only two shy of the record 30 set by Jeff Glas from the University of North Dakota in 2005. Three players were tied for second on the single-season list with 27 until Brown went past that mark this year, including 2017 Fred Mitchell Award recipient Cole Tracy (Assumption College) who moved on to kick for Division I Louisiana State University this year. Brown broke the MIAA record of 25 made by Simon Mathieson in 2015, but Mathieson set that record in 15 games played compared to just 12 for Brown. Brown also broke Matieson’s MIAA record for attempts in a season.
With the Division II national championship game as the only remaining game on the 2018 schedule, Brown leads Division II in field goals made by seven. Kristov Martinez of Texas A&M-Commerce made 21 field goals this year in 13 games before his team was eliminated from the NCAA Playoffs. Brown is tied for the national lead for all collegiate levels with Andre Szmyt of Syracuse, who also has 28 field goals through 12 games. Syracuse has one more game remaining when it faces West Virginia in the Camping World Bowl in Orlando, Florida on December 28. The aforementioned Cole Tracy of LSU is still in the hunt for the national lead at all levels, currently with 25. LSU faces Central Florida in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona on January 1.
Brown finished with a new FHSU single-season scoring record of 123 points in 2018, adding 39 PAT conversions to his 28 field goals. It passed the old scoring record of 112 points set by Clint Bedore in 1995 with 18 touchdowns and 2 two-point conversions. Brown shattered the FHSU single-season field goals made record of 16 set by his predecessor Brandon Brown in 2016. He also broke the kicking points record of 94 set by Brandon Brown in 2017.
Brown earned MIAA Special Teams Player of the Year, while also earning All-MIAA First Team selections at both kicker and punter this season. He also received D2CCA All-Super Region 3 First Team honors at kicker.
The award is named for Fred Mitchell, who enjoyed a distinguished career as one of the nation’s first prominent small-college placekicking specialists at Wittenberg University in Ohio. He is a Wittenberg University Athletic Hall of Famer, author, philanthropist and former Chicago Tribune sports columnist. The recipient of the Fred Mitchell Award is chosen based on both excellence on the football field and the community.
Below is the list of finalists for the 2018 Fred Mitchell Award.
ROLDAN ALCOBENDAS – 2018 FRED MITCHELL AWARD WINNER
Eastern Washington University – Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)
JON ALBERTS
Central College (Iowa) – Division III
DANTE BROWN
Fort Hays State University (Kan.) – Division II
MITCHELL CARTER
Colorado State University-Pueblo – Division II
AUSTIN ERRTHUM
University of Northern Iowa – FCS
WOJCIECH GASIENICA
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater – Division III
JJ JERMAN
East Tennessee State University – FCS
KRISTOV MARTINEZ
Texas A&M-Commerce – Division II
JONAS SCHENDERLEIN
Concordia University, St. Paul (Minn.) – Division II
JAKE TANNER
DePauw University (Ind.) – Division III