Eric Hamilton is a Finalist for Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award;
Fans Can Cast Vote for Eric Hamilton at coachoftheyear.com by December 15 to Win $50,000 for Charitable Support and $20,000 for Alumni Scholarship
Ewing, NJ – December 4, 2007 – The College of New Jersey’s Head Football Coach Eric Hamilton has been named a finalist for the 2007 Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award, which honors the college football coaches who best exemplify responsibility and excellence on and off the field of play. Fans can cast a vote for Eric Hamilton to win for Division III by December 15 at www.coachoftheyear.com. The winner will be announced on December 29 during an ABC/ESPN special.
\”More than a half-million fan votes were cast for 597 college football coaches this season, a tremendous and passionate outpouring of support from college football fans across the nation,\” said Greg Gordon, Liberty Mutual vice president, Consumer Marketing. \”Each finalist embodies what makes this award different than any other: responsibility – not only to his own team and players, but also to his school and his community.\”
Hamilton guided the 2007 Lions to the NJAC Co-Championship, while garnering a bid to the NCAA Division III Playoffs, as the team advanced to the second round before bowing from the tournament after facing the No. 1 ranked Mount Union College Purple Raiders. Hamilton produced the 2007 NJAC Defensive Player of the Year in Joe King, as well as a 2007 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Second Team honoree in Andrew Larkin. For the season, the Lions went 9-3 overall with a 6-1 mark in NJAC play after being tapped to finish seventh in the league’s pre-season poll. Hamilton is also one of the finalists for the AFCA Region I Coach of the Year for his accomplishments with the Lions this fall.
Joining Eric Hamilton as a finalist for Division III are:
Greg Debeljak, Case Western Reserve
John Gagliardi, St. John’s (Minn.)
Joe King, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Mike Swider, Wheaton College
Each winner receives $50,000 from Liberty Mutual to support his civic and charitable activities, $20,000 in scholarship to his school’s alumni association, and is recognized in the permanent Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year display at the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.
Fan votes in this second phase account for 20 percent of each coach’s final score, with a voting committee of college football media (25 percent) and College Football Hall of Fame coaches and players (55 percent) contributing the remainder.
The winners will be announced December 29, 2007, on an ABC special presentation hosted by Hall of Fame Sportscaster Keith Jackson and Analyst Kirk Herbstreit at 5:30 p.m. (ET). The special award presentation will re-air January 8, 2008, on ESPN2 at 2:00 p.m. (ET).
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