BIG RAPIDS - Mike Klobucher of Ferris State University and Jamie Wolf of Clarion University have been named the top male and female Division II Scholar-Athletes of the Year by the Division II Conference Commissioners Association.
The Division II Scholar-Athletes of the Year awards are sponsored by Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. Klobucher and Wolf were selected from a field of eight men's and eight women's regional winners.
In the eight-year history of the award, Wolf gives the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference its first national award winner, while Klobucher is the second Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference winner since 2003-04.
Only once have both winners been from the same conference. The 2004-05 winners, Heather Hamilton of the University of Minnesota Duluth and Aaron Graumann of Augustana (SD) College, both members of the North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, were the first national award winners to earn that distinction.
"We are all very proud of the quality student-athletes that Division II institutions produce annually," said Jim Naumovich, commissioner of the Great Lakes Valley Conference and president of the Division II Commissioners Association. "Disney's Wide World of Sports has helped Division II in many ways and we are grateful to Disney Sports Attractions for helping us recognize this outstanding talent."
Added Fred Schoeler, sports account manager for Disney Sports Attractions, "Involvement in Division II collegiate athletics is something we have emphasized since Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex opened in 1997. The Men's and Women's Tip Off Classic basketball tournaments, which we created along with the Division II Commissioners Association, are two of our top events each fall, while the scholar awards give us the opportunity to annually recognize top student-athletes for their academic and athletic achievements."
Klobucher graduated with a perfect 4.0 GPA, earning his Applied Biology degree from Ferris. A football player, Klobucher helped his squad to an 8-3 overall record, 7-3 in the GLIAC. He led the team in tackles with 92 stops (47 solo) and recorded six tackles for loss. Klobucher finished 26th among Division II statistical leaders in total tackles (9.2 per game) and 31st in solo tackles (4.7 per game). For his career, he ranks seventh among Ferris State's all-time leaders with 389 career tackles in 42 contests and accumulated 20 double-figure single-game tackle performances. In 2006, he was named to the American Football Coaches' Association Division II All-America team and ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team. He also was a National Football Foundation Draddy Trophy Finalist as well as a member of the NFF's inaugural National Honor Society.