Corey Kennedy and Eric Stevenson earn selection to the 2018 Division III Google Cloud Academic All-America Football Team

Wheaton, Ill. - Wheaton seniors Corey Kennedy and Eric Stevenson of the Thunder football team have been named to the 2018-19 Google Cloud Division III Football Academic All-America Team. Kennedy and Stevenson each earned First Team selection to this year's team.

This marks the first time since 2011, when J.J. Clark and Scott Roche were named Academic All-Americans, that the Thunder football program has had two Academic All-Americans in the same season. The First Team recognition for Clark and Stevenson marks the first time since 1995 (Pedro Arruza and Jeff Brown) that Wheaton has produced two First Team Academic All-Americans in football in the same season.

Kennedy earned First Team Academic All-America recognition at defensive back. A senior Business/Economics major at Wheaton, he holds a 3.95 cumulative grade point average. Kennedy, a Second Team All-CCIW selection this season at safety, made 33 total tackles this season with 21 solo stops. A Third Team All-North Region pick by D3football.com this season, Kennedy, led Wheaton with three defensive touchdowns in the 2018 campaign. He tied for the team lead with three interceptions (-177 yards), recovered three fumbles and had six passes broken up.

Stevenson, a Second Team Google Cloud Academic All-American in 2017, is the first Wheaton football player to repeat as an Academic All-American in football since Pedro Arruza earned the honor in 1993, 1994 and 1995. A senior Economics major, Stevenson holds a 3.83 cumulative grade point average at Wheaton. A three-year starter at linebacker, Stevenson was named the 2018 "Don Larson Defensive Player of the Year" by the CCIW. Stevenson made a team-high 73 total tackles this fall, including 40 solo stops. The senior made 9.5 tackles for lost yardage (-29 yards), including two quarterback sacks (-13 yards). He was recently honored as a finalist for the Campbell Trophy, known as the "Academic Heisman", and earned an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a National Football Foundation (NFF) Scholar-Athlete

The Google Cloud Academic All-America program honors student-athletes annually who have succeeded at the highest level in athletics and in the classroom. Members of the eight First Team Academic All-District squads in each Division advance to the national ballot, where they have the opportunity to be selected for the Academic All-America Team. Individuals are selected through voting by CoSIDA; a 2,000-plus member organization consisted of sports public relations professionals for colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative G.P.A. of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at his/her current institution. Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Division I, II, III, NAIA and junior colleges covering all NCAA championship sports.

Through the years, Wheaton student-athletes have earned a total of 90 Academic All-American selections through the prestigious program. Since 2000, there have been 65 Academic All-American selections from Wheaton.

There have been 20 Wheaton College football Academic All-America selections among 16 players since the program began: Bill Hyer (1973); Eugene Campbell (1975 & 1976); Craig Carter (1976); Steve Haugen (1976); Paul Sternenberg (1988), Bart Moseman (1992); Pedro Arruza (1993, 1994 & 1995); Jeff Brown (1995); Chip Parrish (1996); Dane Lundgren (2002); James Hoxworth (2003); Andrew Day (2005); J.J. Clark (2011); Scott Roche (2011), Stevenson (2017 & 2018) and Kennedy (2018).

Originally published by Wheaton College Athletics: /news/2018/12/12/football-corey-kennedy-and-eric-stevenson-earn-selection-to-the-2018-google-cloud-academic-all-america-team.aspx