KILLINGWORTH, Conn. — Eleven members of the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) have earned D3football.com All-Region I honors, as announced by the organization earlier today.
Gallaudet head coach Chuck Goldstein received Region I Coach of the Year accolades to headline the group.
Goldstein led the Bison to ECFC Championship glory in 2022 despite being picked to finish fifth overall in the preseason coaches poll, becoming the lowest preseason seed ever to win the conference championship in the process.
His squad captured the program's second ECFC crown behind a 7-3 overall record and a 5-1 mark in league play.
The following student-athletes also garnered All-Region I honors:
First Team
RB — Brandon Washington (Citronelle, Ala.), Gallaudet
RET — Caezar Williams (Round Rock, Texas), Castleton
LB — Jacob Hartman (Petersburg, W.Va.), Gallaudet
H — Mitch Dolinar (Las Vegas, Nev.), Gallaudet
Second Team
C — Iopu Vaimauga (Federal Way, Wash.), Gallaudet
K — Jonathon Waterman (Sebastian, Fla.), Gallaudet
Third Team
RB — Jake Palmer (Albany, N.Y.), Alfred State
WR — Ian Derda (Guilford, Conn.), SUNY Maritime
G — John Scarboro (Austin, Texas), Gallaudet
T — Tucker Gaudette (Georgia, Vt.), Castleton
The D3football.com All-Region team started in 2005 and honors three teams of top student-athletes in each of the six regions (1 through 6) in Division III football. NCAA Division III realigned Division III football into six regions in 2021. Region 1 includes the Commonwealth Coast Conference, ECFC, Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, Middle Atlantic Conference, New England Small College Athletic Conference, and the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference.
The teams, selected in balloting by Region 1 sports information directors and D3football.com staff, were chosen from 199 nominations by full Division III member schools. A total of 79 student-athletes were chosen for this year's All-Region I Team. In total there were 1,096 student-athletes nominated nationwide for the six regions.
Nominating begins shortly after the regular season ends, and involves the Sports Information Director (SID) at each institution.
All student-athletes nominated for All-Region are eligible to be considered for the D3football.com All-America Team. The 2022 D3football.com All-America Team will be announced Friday, December 16 at the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
About the ECFC
The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference was formed in the spring of 2009 as an NCAA Division III single-sport football conference. The conference, named after the geographic location of the institutions began competition in the fall of 2009.
Current members are Alfred State College (Alfred, NY), Anna Maria College (Worcester, MA), Castleton University (Castleton, VT.), Dean College (Franklin, MA), Gallaudet University (Washington, D.C.), Keystone College (La Plume, PA), and Maritime College State University of New York (Throggs Neck, NY).
The mission of the conference is to:
- Promote intercollegiate varsity football as an integral part of the educational experience of all competitors.
- Establish a conference schedule and determine a conference championship that will represent the conference as the automatic qualifier to the NCAA national tournament.
- Adopt sportsmanship, fair play, moral integrity, and competitive excellence as cornerstones of the conference.
