By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Fort Hays State had two players named to the D2CCA All-America team for the 2018 season. Linebacker Jose Delgado and placekicker Dante Brown both earned First Team honors at their respective positions. Both have received All-America honors for two consecutive seasons.
Delgado, the D2CCA Super Region 3 Defensive Player of the Year, headlines the first-team selections at linebacker. Delgado finished the year with 117 tackles, 8 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, 2 fumble recoveries and 1 forced fumble, earning MIAA Defensive Player of the Year honors as well. He reached double figures in tackles eight times in the 12 games played in 2018, reaching 14 twice. He reached double figures in a game 20 times throughout his 44-game career with the Tigers, earning All-MIAA honors three times and first-team honors the last two years. With 402 career tackles, he became the all-time tackles leader in Fort Hays State’s NCAA Division II era.
Brown now has All-America honors at two different positions after earning All-America Third Team honors as a punter last year from the Don Hansen Football Committee. Earning first team honors as a kicker, Brown was the leader in voting for kickers nationally. His numbers back the selection as he led the nation in field goals made with 28. He averaged an NCAA-best 2.33 field goals per game, breaking the MIAA record for field goals in a season by three and coming just two shy of the NCAA Division II single-season record. He converted 84.8 percent of his field goal attempts, going 28-of-33 for the season, to rank fifth in NCAA Division II. Brown also shattered the Fort Hays State single-season record for points with 123, going past the mark of 94 set last year by his predecessor at placekicker, Brandon Brown. With 123 points, Brown ranks 12th in NCAA Division II in scoring. Brown also remained the team’s punter this year with 67 punts for 2,772 yards, averaging 41.4 yards per attempt. He was an All-MIAA First Team selection at both kicker and punter this year.
Delgado and Brown are the third and fourth repeat All-America performers at Fort Hays State in the program’s NCAA Division II history. They join Keith Eck (1995 and 1996) and Nathan Shepherd (2016 and 2017) as the only players to receive postseason All-America honors multiple years. Eck was the FHSU record holder for tackles (361) in the program’s NCAA history until Delgado broke that mark this year with 41 more.