Hannah-white named All-American
Steve Campbell
Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: Sports
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Hannah-White, a sophomore from Lafayette, Ind., averaged almost 22 yards per punt return on the season and 25 yards per kick-off return. He also started at cornerback for the Fighting Bees in addition to his special teams duties.
"It was good," Hannah-White said of getting the honor. "I didn't know I was a second team All-American until [defensive coordinator] Coach [Jeff] Girsch called me in January. It was a good feeling."
"I was very excited for James. I think it's something he's definitely worthy of," head coach Mike Magistrelli said. "He's a very talented young man. He works hard at it. It's a great compliment to him, but it's also a great compliment to the other players that are on our punt return unit and kick return unit that really do a great job opening up holes and then obviously James is able to find those and make big plays out of them."
Hannah-White's biggest play of the season came against Waldorf College during the Homecoming game on Oct. 10. During the game, Hannah-White returned a punt 70 yards for his only return touchdown of the season and led the Bees to a 66-0 victory.
But for Hannah-White, individual honors are not what he is about. His focus is more on winning and letting individual honors come after the team.
"I want to win," Hannah-White said. "I want to win and [our record of] 6-4 wasn't what I wanted as a team goal. But when you talk individually, you perform and it felt good to get one of the goals done at least."
Hannah-White follows in the footsteps of recent All-American SAU football players. After the 2008 season, Michael Hayward earned first team honors as a wide receiver, Matt Sutton earned second team honors at left tackle and Vince Fillipp received an honorable mention nod as a defensive tackle. But to have someone on the special teams side of the ball is a little different and something the team embraces.
"That's been one of our focuses the last couple years to really improve on special teams and I thought we took huge strides this year within our special teams with the things we were able to do," Magistrelli said. "To be recognized for that is really exciting for all that hard work that the players and coaches and everybody put in to really address the special teams."
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