Feb. 6, 2002

LAS VEGAS - UNLV senior defender Andrew Hooker (Victoria, British Columbia) was named to the 2002 Verizon/CoSIDA First Team Academic All-America Men's Soccer Team.

Only the seventh student-athlete in school history to be named a First Team Academic All-American, Hooker is a mechanical engineering major at UNLV carrying an impressive 3.92 grade-point average. He is also member of the UNLV Honors College and was recently named UNLV Mechanical Engineering Student of the Year.

One of the most prolific defenders in school history, Hooker is a two-time All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation First Team selection and three-time UNLV Athletics Academic Top 30 honoree. Last year, Hooker received Third Team Academic All-American honors. He finished the 2001 season having played in every game of his four-year career (1998-2001) for a total of 72 consecutive games played.

Hooker joins former Rebel scholar-athletes Danny Tarkanian (men's basketball, 1983-1984), Misty Thomas (women's basketball, 1984-1985-1986), Roger Pettersson (men's tennis, 1996), Kim Rondina (softball, 1997), Ryan Bledsoe (men's soccer, 2000) and Jeremy Anderson (men's golf, 2000) on the school's first team elite, who have combined for a total of 10 all-time selections.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Verizon Academic All-America program, which was founded by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) in 1952 to recognize collegiate student-athletes for their outstanding achievements in the classroom and on the playing field. Over the past 50 years, the Verizon Academic All-America program has grown into one of the most recognized and prestigious collegiate scholar-athlete awards nationwide, honoring student-athletes from all NCAA championship sports.