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Dec. 15, 2009
IUP junior Craig Burgess has been selected as one of 10 finalists for the inaugural Fred Mitchell Award, which is presented to the top placekicker in NCAA Division II and III football. The award is named for Mitchell, a longtime Chicago Tribune sports columnist and one of the nation's first prominent small college placekicking specialists while playing at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, in the mid-1960s. The recipient of the Fred Mitchell Award will be chosen based on excellence on the football field and in the community. Burgess is one of five Division II kickers on the list of finalists, including C.J. Bahr of Slippery Rock, Nick Hope of Wayne State (Neb.), Garrett Lindholm of Tarleton State (Texas) and Garrett Rolsma of Central Washington. Seven of the 10 finalists are seniors, with only Burgess, Bahr and Dickinson's Gordon Craig making the select group in their junior year. Burgess led the Crimson Hawks in scoring in 2009 with 59 points, making all 32 extra point attempts and 9-of-11 field goal tries. He made 5-of-6 from 40 or more yards, including a long of 43 and a game-winning 41-yarder with five seconds left in a 34-32 victory over Kutztown in the season finale. Burgess holds the IUP career record with 31 field goals made (in 41 attempts) and set another school mark during the 2009 campaign when he had a streak of 11 consecutive made field goals. Burgess tied a school mark with four field goals versus Gannon late in the 2008 season. In the extra point department, Burgess has made 108 of 109 over the past three seasons and will bring a school-record streak of 91 in a row into his senior year. He has scored a total of 201 points, third most among all IUP placekickers and the 10th-highest total regardless of position. Burgess, who was named to the Daktronics All-Super Region 1 team, is active in community service projects both in Indiana and at home. He was involved in the bone marrow donation registration fair that was spearheaded by IUP assistant coach Jim Smith and assisted in campus and community cleanup projects, Hearts for the Hungry, which provides food for starving children in Haiti, tutored elementary students and coached kickers at Ohio State football camps. The announcement of the Fred Mitchell Award recipient is expected on Monday. |
