Bulldog football places seven on scholar-athlete list

View complete list of NAIA football scholar-athletes

SEWARD, Neb. –  Concordia University landed seven football team members on the Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete list, as announced by the NAIA on Friday. Three of those selections are repeat honorees as seniors Mitchell Cherney, Dylan Heithoff and Spencer Zysset have received scholar-athlete recognition for the second-straight year.

Those three are joined with scholar-athlete mention by first-time honorees in senior Joel Newton and juniors Collin Christiansen, Colin Elley and Devin Elley.

Concordia football’s seven scholar-athletes ranked second among GPAC institutions.

In order to be nominated by an institution’s head coach or sports information director, a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and must have achieved a junior academic status.

Concordia ranks as the NAIA’s all-time leader in number of Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes with 960 and counting. (This figure includes all 41 Concordia scholar-athletes announced for the fall season). During the 2012-13 academic year, Concordia had 71 Scholar-Athletes and 17 NAIA Scholar-Teams.

A total of 259 football student-athletes across the nation were named scholar-athletes by the NAIA.

Concordia University, Nebraska, founded in 1894, is a fully accredited, coeducational university located in Seward, Neb., that currently serves over 2,200 students. Concordia offers more than 50 professional and liberal arts programs in an excellent academic and Christ-centered community that equips men and women for lives of learning, service and leadership in the church and world.

2013 Concordia football scholar-athletes

• Mitchell Cherney, Sr. | Burnsville, Minn. | Biology and Chemistry
• Collin Christiansen, Jr. | Palmer, Alaska | Communications Studies and Business Administration
• Colin Elley, Jr. | Hastings, Neb. | Chemistry; Pre-Engineering
• Devin Elley, Jr. | Hastings, Neb. | Chemistry; Pre-Engineering
• Dylan Heithoff, Sr. | Elgin, Neb. | Accounting; minor in History
• Joel Newton, Sr. | Rockford, Ill. | Language and Rhetoric; Pre-Seminary
• Spencer Zysset, Sr. | Hastings, Neb. | Middle Level Education