Nov. 5, 2009
LAS VEGAS - Ryan Wolfe (Santa Clarita, Calif.) is already his school's and league's all-time receptions leader. Now, the UNLV record-breaker could become Rebel football's first-ever CoSIDA Academic All-America winner.
Wolfe, who heads into Saturday's game vs. Colorado State ranked 13th in college football history with 275 catches in his career, earned one of two receiver spots on the first team of the 2009 CoSIDA ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Eight Team on Thursday. The Hart High School graduate now advances to voting for Academic All-America. No Rebel football player has ever been named to a national CoSIDA academic team, which is scheduled to be released this year on Tuesday, Nov. 24.
Currently holding a 4.0 grade point average in graduate school, Wolfe is pursuing a master's in sports education leadership after already earning his bachelor's degree in kinesiology from UNLV with a cumulative 3.55 GPA. He currently leads the Mountain West Conference and stands 11th in the nation with 7.33 receptions per game for a total of 66 through nine weeks. His 3,417 career receiving yards are just 217 short of the MWC all-time record held by CSU's David Anderson.
Thursday's announcement also marked a big honor for head coach Mike Sanford's program as the Rebels have now had at least one district winner in four straight seasons for the first time ever. Former defensive lineman Jacob Hales (Las Vegas) won in 2006 and former receiving great Casey Flair (Anchorage, AK) was honored in both 2007 and 2008 to become the first Rebel gridder to earn the district award twice in a career.
The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) selects Academic All-America teams in 12 programs throughout the year. Players who are starters or important reserves on their teams and are at least in their second year at a school and hold at least a 3.30 career GPA are eligible for the academic awards, which are voted on by sports information directors from across the nation.
UNLV's district includes four-year institutions from the states of California, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Idaho and Nevada.
2009 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Football TeamsDistrict 8 University Division First Team
POS PLAYER SCHOOL YR GPA MAJOR(S)P Robert Malone FRESNO STATE Sr. 3.51 KinesiologyQB Drew Hubel PORTLAND STATE Jr. 3.84 Criminology and Criminal JusticeWR Ryan Wolfe UNLV Gr. 4.00 (grad) Sports Education Leadership 3.55 Kinesiology (earned BS 2009)WR Ryan Whalen STANFORD Jr. 3.43 Science Technology and SocietyTE Vince Pascoe FRESNO STATE Jr. 4.00 Mechanical EngineeringRB Richie Brockel BOISE STATE Gr. 3.70, 3.41 (grad) AccountingRB Owen Marecic STANFORD Jr. 3.32 Human BiologyOL Chris Thomas EASTERN WASH. Sr. 3.78 Biology/Pre-MedOL Andrew Jackson FRESNO STATE Jr. 3.92 Business AdministrationOL Zane Beadles UTAH Sr. 3.54 Mechanical EngineeringOL Ryan Henry IDAHO STATE Sr. 3.91 Physical EducationOL Micah Hannam WASHINGTON STATE Jr. 3.59 Civil EngineeringOL Mark Boskovich CALIFORNIA Jr. 3.73 Political SciencePK Kevin Goessling FRESNO STATE So. 3.46 Business AdministrationDB Beau Hadley WEBER STATE Sr. 4.00 Technical SalesDB Chima Nwachukwu WASHINGTON STATE Jr. 3.79 Political ScienceDB Scott Johnson BYU Sr. 3.82 Exercise ScienceDB Moses Harris FRESNO STATE Gr. 3.56 Business FinanceLB Mike Nixon ARIZONA STATE Sr. 4.00 Political ScienceLB Matthew Bauman BYU Sr. 3.91 FinanceLB Mike Mohamed CALIFORNIA Jr. 3.43 Business AdministrationDL Jacob Kragt EASTERN WASH. Sr. 3.88 BiologyDL Casey Hamlett WASHINGTON STATE Jr. 3.72 Management and OperationsDL Brett Denney BYU Sr. 3.54 FinanceDL Aaron Lavarias IDAHO Jr. 3.35 Accounting
