INDIVIDUAL HONOREES & 2012 CSJ ALL-AMERICA TEAM

Philadelphia, PA - The aftereffects of Wagner's resonant 2012 season continued to be felt with the announcement that the College Sports Journal (CSJ) has named Walt Hameline the 2012 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) National Coach of the Year, while junior Dominique Williams  (Bridgeton, NJ/ Milford Academy) was one of five running backs named to the 2012 College Sports Journal All-America Team.
 
Williams is the only player from the NEC named to the 2012 CSJ All-America Team.
 
The 63 players on the CSJ All-America squad represent 63 scholarships at the FCS level and the team is put together in such a way as to be a fully-functioning squad, with all positions on offense, defense and special teams.
 
The CSJ All-America team was selected by a blue ribbon panel of FCS experts put together by College Sports Journal executive editor David Coulson and CSJ publisher and managing editor Chuck Burton.

Much of the success enjoyed by the Seahawks this season was due to the consistently-high efforts delivered by the 5-9, 200-pound Williams on a weekly basis. The hard-charging, fast-cutting South Jersey product reached the 100-yard mark eight times during Wagner's 13-game season, topped by a 177-yard day vs. Holy Cross (11/10), which helped spark a Seahawk late-game comeback that resulted in a 31-30 Wagner win.
 
Williams' long run of the season came in the 12-3 victory at Sacred Heart (10/6) when he bounced a second-quarter run to the outside and outraced all of the Pioneers defenders en route to a career-long 81-yard touchdown jaunt.  The long TD run vs. Sacred Heart was one of 14 touchdowns that Williams scored on the season, 13 of which came on the ground.
 
For the year, Williams totaled 1,228 yards on the ground, placing him seventh on the school's all-time single-season list, just 10 yards behind the sixth-highest mark of 1,338, which is also held by Williams, a figure he tallied in the 2011 season.
 
The 105.6 yards per game rushing average posted Williams ranked third in the NEC through the end of the regular season while his 133.3 all-purpose yards per game also ranked third in the conference. Nationally, Williams' 102.54-yard average (NCAA computes stats based on entire season) ranked 25th.

The play that perhaps most defined the Seahawks' magical turnaround season came in the fourth quarter of Wagner's 31-21 win over Bryant on September 29. The Seahawks were clinging to a 24-21 lead  when Williams took flight, hurdling a Bulldog defender en route to an eye-popping 29-yard run. The played would earn a spot among ESPN's Top 10 Plays of the Weekend.
 
As a fifth-year senior, Williams will enter the 2013 season with 3,308 career rushing yards, which is fourth in the Seahawk all-time annals. The three people ahead of Williams on the Wagner all-time rushing list are Rick Sarille, the No. 1 all-time rusher with 5,290 yards, followed by Terry Underwood, who gained 5,010 yards from 1985-88, and Alonzo Patterson, who rumbled for 4,177 yards from 1979-1982. Williams is also fifth in all-time scoring with 234 career points.
 
The 2012 season was extraordinary by any measure, one that featured a nine-game winning streak, the school's first Northeast Conference (NEC) Football Title, a 31-20 NCAA FCS Playoff win over No. 24 Colgate, followed by a gallant effort in a 29-19 defeat at No. 4 Eastern Washington.

For Hameline, who owns a 213-127-2 (.626) record in 32 years at the controls of the Seahawk program, this latest recognition marks the third major honor that he's received in the last four days. On January 20, the longtime Colts Neck, NJ native was inducted into the New Jersey Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame and the following day was tabbed the 2012 FCS College Football News (CFN) National Coach of the Year.
 
Today's announcement marks the third “Coach of the Year” honor that Hameline has collected in the last two months. On November 19, Hameline, who guided the Seahawks to a 9-4 record and a 7-1 conference mark, was named 2012 NEC Coach of the Year, followed by this week's CSN and CSJ National Coach of the Year honors.  
 
Hameline also had the distinction of being named one of 20 finalists for the prestigious Eddie Robinson Award on November 21. Since 1987, the Eddie Robinson Award has been given annually to college football's top head coach in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) by The Sports Network. The award is named for Eddie Robinson, the College Football Hall of Fame coach, who retired in 1997 after 56 years at Grambling State University.
 
The 2012 season was destined to be a memorable one for Hameline regardless of his team's performance when,  in July, it was announced that Wagner College Stadium would be renamed “Hameline Field” in a ceremony prior to the September 15 home opener vs. Monmouth.

Following the moving ceremony honoring the longtime athletic director/head coach, who guided the 1987 Seahawks to the Division III National Title, Monmouth jumped out to an early lead en route to a convincing 38-17 win. The loss dropped Wagner's season record to 0-3.  Picked seventh in the NEC's nine-team 2012 Preseason Poll, even the most ardent of Seahawk fans could not have scripted what began to unfold next.
 
It started with a win, followed by another, and another, and another…home wins, road wins, day-time wins, night wins - the Seahawks did not lose their fourth game until nearly three months later, following an epic nine-game winning streak.
 
The Green & White finished the 2012 campaign ranked 21st in The Sports Network Final Top-25 Poll and 22nd in the Final FCS Coaches Poll, marking the first time an NEC team has ended the season with an appearance in both official Top-25 polls.
 
Within an already well-accomplished coaching career at Wagner, Hameline, in the last nine months, has achieved the following honors.
 
Jan. 24, 2013 – Named 2012 College Sports Journal FCS National Coach of the Year
 
Jan. 21, 2013 - Named 2012 College Football News FCS National Coach of the Year

Jan. 20, 2013 - Inducted into the New Jersey Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame

Jan. 7, 2013 – Wagner Became First NEC Football Team Ever Ranked in Both Final Official Top-25 Polls

Nov. 24, 2012 - Wagner Earns First NCAA Playoff Win in NEC History over Colgate

Nov. 21, 2012 - Named Northeast Conference Coach of the Year

Nov. 19, 2012 - Named one of 20 finalists for the prestigious Eddie Robinson Award 

Nov. 17, 2012 - Clinches Wagner football's first-ever NEC Title 

Sept. 15. 2012 - Wagner College Stadium Renamed “Hameline Field.”

Sept. 15, 2012 - 25-Year Reunion of 1987 Division III National Championship Team

Sept. 1, 2012 - Julian Stanford Makes NFL Roster

April 26, 2012 - 2012 Distinguished Service Award from the MBWA