Gorillas Host 2011 Football Team Awards Banquet
PSU
Monday, January 23, 2012 2:00 AM
News
Pittsburg, KS
PITTSBURG — The Pittsburg State University football team hosted its 2011 Team Awards Banquet Saturday evening (Jan. 22). The event capped a festive day in Pittsburg after the Gorillas were honored with a lengthy downtown parade early in the afternoon.
A large crowd of fans lined an eight-block stretch of Broadway to recognize the Gorillas. Pitt State head football coach Tim Beck and PSU President Steve Scott led the parade, riding in the basket of the new Pittsburg Fire Department aerial platform truck. Pittsburg Fire and Police Departments escorted the national champion Gorillas, along with American Legion Riders, local business vehicles and the PSU Spirit Squad, from 10th & Broadway to the Pritchett Pavilion at 2nd & Broadway. PSU players rode on the back of a flatbed truck.
Following the parade, Pittsburg mayor Marty Beezley read a special proclamation to Beck and the Gorillas at a community pep rally, which included members of the PSU Pride of the Plains Marching Band. Beck and Scott, as well as junior running back Briceton Wilson and senior tight end Bristan Kelley addressed the assembled crowd.
Later that evening, more than 700 guests attended the banquet, held at John Lance Arena.
Beck, named both the 2011 NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year by Liberty Mutual, Fieldturf™ and the Don Hansen Football Committee, spoke at length to the crowd, thanking all those who made the Gorillas 2011 season such a special one.
“This year, we had the ultimate team and I’m very appreciative of that,” Beck said. “I could talk for a long time about our players … bottom line is, we had a group of players and coaches that believed they could win every Saturday.”
The night included recognition of several individual and team awards.
Beck and the PSU coaching staff honored senior Derek Jackson with the inaugural Heart of a Gorilla Award, a recognition the coaching staff created to honor a student-athlete who exemplifies hard work and dedication in the class room and on the field.
Associate athletic director Natalie Cullen presented academic awards. Most impressively, Cullen recognized 50 members of the PSU football team who currently carry 3.0 or higher cumulative grade-point-averages. She also presented the Sunflower Award to Eric Love as the outgoing senior with the highest cumulative GPA. Love graduated in December with a 3.67 GPA as a construction engineering technology major.
Former long-time NFL assistant coach and member of the 1957 NAIA National Champion Gorillas John Levra, handed out MIAA, Super Region Four and All-America awards. Former running back Stacy Butcher and former quarterback Brian Hutchins presented team-voted awards.
Butcher presented the Work Team Offense Player of the Year Award to sophomore Trey Derryberry and the Work Team Defense Player of the Year Award to freshman Lewis Foutz. She also presented the Ronnie West Award for the Special Teams Player of the Year to sophomore John Brown and the Ronald Moore Award for the Freshman of the Year to Mandel Dixon.
Hutchins bestowed the Richard Stratton Award, which honors sportsmanship, loyalty and inspiration, to senior quarterback Zac Dickey. He presented the Joe Murphy Award for the Defensive Player of the Year to sophomore linebacker Nate Dreiling and the W.G. Parrott Award for the Offensive Player of the Year to Brown. The final award, the Carnie Smith Award was presented to Dickey, recognizing the team's Most Valuable Player.
The banquet concluded with the premiere showing of Pitt State's 2011 highlight DVD, “The Road to Florence: One Game at a Time, One Play at a Time”.
Individuals can purchase copies of the highlight DVD for $20 or they can order a DVD as well as a copy of a special commemorative magazine chronicling Pitt State's championship season for $25.