One of the nation's leading outlets for NCAA Division II football has announced its top players for the 2009 season and Incarnate Word's Chaz Pavliska is a first team honoree.
Pavliska was named to the first team defensive secondary on the All-Independent Team selected by d2football.com. The honored teams included players from schools not affiliated with conferences in Division II.
Over the course of UIW's inaugural season when the Cardinals went 5-5, Pavliska led the team in tackles with 71 including 39 solo stops. He recorded 12.5 tackles for losses and he had 4.5 sacks of the quarterback. He also intercepted three passes and recovered two fumbles.
In mid-October the redshirt freshman from Floresville was named d2football.com's defensive player of the week for the nation.
Four other Cardinals from the defensive side of the football were voted onto the d2football.com's second unit for independent schools.
Sophomore tackle Diego McClain once was d2football.com's defensive player of the week and his 14 tackles for losses were third among all independent players. Redshirt freshman defensive end Alan Ford was on the second team and his 6.5 quarterback sacks were third in the nation.
Also named to the second team were redshirt freshman linebacker Dakota Mawyer (68 tackles, 10 for losses) and redshirt freshman safety Aaron Hernandez whose five interceptions led all independent players.
For the 2010 season Incarnate Word will move from its independent status to play as a member of the Lone Star Conference.
