The Victory Sports Network’s 2006 NAIA All American Team has been released by Jason Dannelly. Individual award winners for this year include:
Offensive Player of the Year: Chad Cavender-QB-Sioux Falls (SD)
Defensive Player of the Year: Brian Kurtz-LB-Saint Francis (Ind)
Coach of the Year: Kalen DeBoer-University of Sioux Falls
“I am extremely pleased with the way this year’s team was selected,” said Dannelly. “To bring in the opinions of 11 NAIA coaches plus our extensive knowledge of these NAIA players brings a lot of credibility to this year’s team.”
Previously the NAIA Coaches voted for their own All-American team through the NAIA and their sports information department while VSN conducted their own media All-American team. However, the coaches All-Americans were never recognized by the AFCA in the same light as the other divisions of college football. Rather, some of the NAIA All-Americans would be put together with NCAA Division II players preventing many great NAIA athletes from receiving national recognition by the AFCA.
In the previous off-season NAIA AFCA Coaches Association President Bill Cronin of Georgetown College worked with AFCA Executive Director Grant Teaff to ensure the NAIA would have a team that would be recognized by the AFCA. That team was released last week via the AFCA web site taking the place of any team officially released by the NAIA. The coaches then chose to work with and endorse the VSN All-American team as a more complete All-American team while viewing the AFCA team as the elite team.
There is no doubt some of the best football players in the country are represented on the VSN team. Four Sioux Falls Cougars top the VSN First Team All-American list leading the way for the entire division. Several schools are tied with two first team All-Americans.
This is the fifth season that the Victory Sports Network, formerly NAIAFOOTBALL.NET, has released an All-American team. The team has been presented each season by Engravers Edge of Sioux Falls, SD who also provides the awards for the players and schools to display.
