SU's Dave Paveletz Is National Player of the Year Finalist

MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 25 -- The J-Club of Saint John's University (Minn.) has named Susquehanna University's senior running back and All-America candidate Dave Paveletz (Warrior Run, Pa./Hanover Area) as one of 10 finalists for Jostens' 2009 Gagliardi Trophy, awarded to the NCAA Division III football Player of the Year.

Paveletz, the 2009 Liberty League Offensive Player of the Year and a member of Susquehanna's Liberty championship team, is the second SU athlete to be honored as a 2009 national Player of the Year finalist. Joel Patch '09 earned the honor in men's basketball in February.

A team captain, Paveletz is a three-time all-Liberty first-teamer and all-academic team member. He led the league and currently ranks fifth in Division III in rushing yards this season with 1,414. He led the league in rushing yards in both 2008 and 2007 as well.

This year, he increased the Susquehanna career-rushing-yards record, pushing his total to 4,731 yards, while also setting new SU career-rushing-touchdowns (47) and single-season-rushing-yards marks. He owns the SU single-game rushing record as well with a 288-yard performance in a 28-13 win over the University of Rochester on Oct. 11, 2008. He tied his own school single-game record with four rushing TD in that same game.

D3football.com has placed Paveletz on its National Team of the Week multiple times. He has been honored as a Liberty Player of the Week on numerous occasions as well.

The Gagliardi Trophy, selected by a national committee comprised of coaches, sportswriters, community leaders and former Division III student-athletes enshrined in the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame, recognizes excellence in athletics, academics and community service.

Paveletz boasts a 3.50 grade point average as a finance major and economics minor at SU. He earned College Sports Information Directors of America/ESPN The Magazine academic all-district honors the past two years before gaining academic All-America status this year. He has been on the Susquehanna Dean's List every semester since the spring of 2007 and has maintained an SU Presidential Scholarship since the fall of 2006. He has been a teacher's assistant in the university's Information Systems department since September 2008.

Paveletz frequently donates his time and energy to the Central PA Multiple Sclerosis Society. At various times, he has donated prize money won through Crusader Football Player of the Week awards to the organization while encouraging teammates to do the same. Also, SU football helped to raise over $1,200 this year in support of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization--designed to promote breast-cancer awareness and to fund research of the disease--in the name of Debra Lacy, late mother of an SU teammate.

The 17th annual Gagliardi award will be presented on Thursday, Dec. 17, in Salem, Va., as part of the festivities leading up to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl (Division III national championship game)--played in Salem on Saturday, Dec. 19.

The award is named for Saint John's head football coach John Gagliardi, the first active head coach to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and the winningest coach in college football history with a record of 471-126-11.

SU Sports Hall of Famer Kristen Venne '99 Marcinko is a former Jostens winner, having taken the women's basketball Player of the Year award in 1999.

**UPDATE: Paveletz has not been selected as the winner.