CLEVELAND, Ohio – Accolades continue to roll in for University of the Incarnate Word football standout, Joe Zema, who on Thursday was named Top Collegiate Punter on the Division I Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association All-America Team.
 
The fifth annual award recognizes the top student-athletes from FCS institutions at 11 different positions. The FCS ADA All-America team is the most exclusive All-America team, and only one punter in the nation is selected each year.
 
Thursday's announcement comes less than a month after Zema garnered All-Southland Conference First Team honors and just two days removed from his recognition as a member of the Associated Press All-America First Team.
 
A 6'2" punter out of Melbourne, Australia, Zema was arguably the Cardinals' most consistent and effective weapon of the 2017 season. Zema's UIW career was a success from day one, as he set the program record for longest punt in his first collegiate game, launching a 75-yarder at Fresno State.
 
Zema finished the year as the national leader in punting at the FCS level, with an average of 46.7 yards per punt. The next-closest player in the country had 26 fewer punts and averaged a full 1.4 yards less per punt. Zema booted 31 punts over 50 yards, while the next-closest punter in the conference had just 14. Zema concluded his stellar year by breaking the league record for punting average in a season, set by Chad Stanley of Stephen F. Austin in 1998.
 
ADA FCS RELEASE
 
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