Springfield College senior Max Nacewicz is a finalist for the third annual Cliff Harris award.
Little Rock, Ark. - The Little Rock Touchdown Club and Wright, Lindsey & Jennings LLP announced that Springfield College's Max Nacewicz (Sandy Hook, Conn.) is a finalist for the third annual Cliff Harris Award.
This award is presented to the nation's top small college defensive player representing more than 5,000 defensive players from almost 500 NCAA Division II, Division III and NAIA colleges and universities. A prestigious selection committee made up of former college and pro football greats will select the winner. In addition to the Cliff Harris Award overall winner, the top vote getter from each division will also be announced.
The Cliff Harris Award winner will be announced on Dec. 24 and honored at the Little Rock Touchdown Club's annual awards banquet in February 2016. The inaugural winner of the award in 2013 was Lindenwood University cornerback Pierre Desir now with the Cleveland Browns. The 2014 winner was Darius Allen of Colorado State University-Pueblo.
This year's finalist list includes 29 Division II players, 19 Division III players and 15 players from NAIA. This marks the second-straight year that Nacewicz has been a finalist for this prestigious honor.
Just this week, Nacewicz was one of only 11 defensive players selected, including one of three linebackers from the entire nation to be named to the 2015 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division III Coaches' All-America Team.
It was an outstanding final year for Nacewicz as became the first Springfield College student-athlete to earn a conference defensive player of the year honor in the past 17 years as he was chosen as the Liberty League's Defensive Player of the Year. The Applied Exercise Science major put together another dominating season for Springfield, totaling 104 tackles, including seven sacks. Nacewicz will go down as one of the all-time greats at Springfield as he owns the program record for tackles-for-loss (54) and sacks (34), while his 299 tackles is the third-highest total in program history.