Northwestern State's Yaser Elqutub Named to AFCA Good Works Team
Vote for Yaser Elqutub to be Captain of AFCA Good Works Team
NATCHITOCHES,
La. - Northwestern State senior linebacker Yaser Elqutub is among 22
student-athletes from all levels of college football named Tuesday to the 2011
Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, one of the most prestigious off-the-field honors
in the sport during the past two decades.
Elqutub,
a 6-foot-1-inch, 235-pound senior from Katy, Texas (Cinco Ranch High School), added
to a long list of community service and academic awards he has received, along
with honorable mention All-Southland Conference recognition in 2010 for his
performance on the field for the Demons.
Last
year, he was one of 52 players voted to the Football Championship Subdivision
Athletic Directors Association Academic All-Star Team. Elqutub was recognized
for his community and campus service with the 2011 Southland Conference Steve
McCarty Citizenship Award, and was named one of 135 students in 30 states
designated as a Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Contact, recognizing "inspiring
college student leaders who have shown an investment in finding solutions for
challenges facing communities."
Elqutub,
an applicant to attend medical school next year, has a 3.83 grade point average
in scientific inquiry - liberal arts with a concentration in mathematics and
science, with a minor in philosophy while attending the Louisiana Scholars'
College at Northwestern. A former walkon, he has 81 career tackles and will
start his 15th consecutive game Saturday when the Demons open Southland Conference
play Nicholls State on the Southland Conference Television Network.
Allstate
Insurance Company and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA)
announced the Good Works Team roster Tuesday from a record 132 players
nominated this summer. The program recognizes a select group of college
football players committed to making a difference in their communities.
A
special voting panel, including former Allstate AFCA Good Works Team members
and current college football broadcasters headed by former Notre Dame coach Lou
Holtz, selected 22 players from across the country to the team. Of the two 11-member teams, one comprises
players competing in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and the other is a
combined team representing the FCS along with divisions II, III and the NAIA.
"For
two decades this award has represented one of the great aspects of college
football by shining a spotlight on the community involvement of its
student-athletes," said Mark LaNeve, Allstate executive vice president for
marketing and sales operations, who also serves on the Allstate AFCA Good Works
Team voting panel. "Allstate is proud to partner with the AFCA to present and
grow awareness around this award and continues to be inspired by the commitment
and dedication of its recipients."
Elqutub will be invited to travel
to New Orleans for the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl, where the Good Works Team will
participate in a community service project and be introduced at halftime of the
Sugar Bowl.
He is the first Louisiana college
player to receive the honor since Tulane offensive lineman Mark Traina in 2005.
Only two other state competitors, Tulane running back Mewelde Moore (2003) and
LSU quarterback Rohan Davey (2001), have made the Good
Works Team this century.
Elqutub is the third Southland
Conference recipient and the first in 13 years, since Stephen F. Austin punter
Chad Stanley was selected in 1998, one year after teammate Todd Holmes, a
defensive back, was chosen.
"It comes as no great surprise to me that Yaser is being
recognized in such a prestigious manner because he has had such a special
impact on not only the NSU athletic program, but across campus and in the Natchitoches
community," said Northwestern State athletics director Greg Burke. "I am thrilled for Yaser and appreciate him
for being the epitome of a student-athlete. He truly is special and it is
an honor for us to have him as a part of our athletic program."
Elqutub is part of a 2011 Good Works Team roster that includes Baylor
quarterback Robert Griffin III along with players from Texas, Notre Dame,
Nebraska, Boise State and Southern California. He is one of four FCS
representatives, along with Drake linebacker Stoy Hall, North Dakota defensive
back Justin Belotti and Rhode Island offensive lineman Matt Greenhalgh.
"Yaser Elqutub being named to the 2011 Allstate AFCA Good Works
Team is a prestigious honor for all of us in the Southland Conference," league
commissioner Tom Burnett said. "Not only an award-winning student-athlete on
the field and in the classroom, Yaser excels even further with his selfless
contributions in community service and campus leadership. The Southland
is extremely proud of Yaser and this very appropriate honor."
Elqutub is president of the Southland's Student-Athlete Advisory
Committee along with serving in the same role for the Northwestern State SAAC.
He has represented the Southland at the last two NCAA conventions and is in
line to do so again in January 2012.
"Yaser is an exceptional student-athlete, and deserves every bit of
this honor," said Carrie Crowell, the academic coordinator for Northwestern
State athletics and the sponsor of the SAAC on campus. "I'm so proud of
everything he has accomplished here, and I know his work here isn't done.
Athletes like Yaser make my job not only easier, but more enjoyable. I
couldn't be more proud of Yaser, and I'm excited he's being recognized with such
a prestigious honor."
Demon football coach Bradley Dale Peveto said, "He is one of the
elite, special people who play the game we love, and squeeze every ounce out of
themselves in football, in academics and in life. He is completely about
service to others, and representing himself, his family, his teammates, his friends
and his university in the best possible manner.
"In my 24 years of coaching, I've never had a higher caliber
individual play for me. He is our voice on campus. He has the respect of his
classmates, of his professors, of the university administration and of the
people in our community. I am looking forward to him being my doctor one day."
Elqutub was voted by the student body as Northwestern's 2010
Homecoming King. He has been a keynote speaker for the university's freshman convocation
along with the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office DARE Teen Summit and a
counselor for at-risk teens in the sheriff's office FINS program since 2010.
He created and headed a university-wide series of events in April
benefitting the Samaritan's Feet project providing shoes for needy children
around the world. Other activities for Elqutub include repeated visits to local
schools and the Boys & Girls Club, and raising money and participating in
local civic causes including the Alzheimer's Awareness Walk, the March of
Dimes, the DOVES spring clothes drive supporting battered women, and the Green
NSU Citywide Cleanup.
He is a nominee for another elite national honor, the National
Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame's Scholar-Athlete Postgraduate
Scholarship Awards. Recipients will be announced later this season.
The
2011 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team voting panel includes three former Good
Works Team members: former Pittsburgh quarterback Alex Van Pelt, former Georgia
offensive lineman Matt Stinchcomb and former Notre Dame defensive lineman Grant
Irons. Holtz, who also serves as the national ambassador for the program, and fellow
ESPN personality Rece Davis are also a part of the voting panel, joined by
current AFCA president and Montana State head coach Rob Ash, 1987 AFCA
President and former BYU head coach LaVell Edwards and Allstate's LaNeve.