John Watts Named Capital One Academic All-District Football
WASHINGTON, Pa. -- Washington & Jefferson College senior defensive tackle John Watts (St. Johns, Fla./Jacksonville University) was selected to the Capital One Academic All-District Football Team on Thursday.
Watts, who owns a 3.63 grade-point average as an accounting major, now moves on to the national Academic All-America ballot. Watts is the 26th President to earn an academic all-district award since Head Coach Mike Sirianni took over in 2003.
The 2012 Capital One Academic All-District® Football and Teams, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America, have been released to recognize the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. Watts was a District IV selection which includes all NCAA Division III football players from Pennsylvania.
The 6-foot-1, 240-pounder transferred to W&J from Division I Elon University. He has started all nine games this year and has recorded 26 tackles, including five for a loss, and 1.5 sacks. Watts picked up a career-high five tackles during the Presidents’ 17-0 shutout at Thiel on September 22.
For his career, Watts has played in 18 games and owns 33 tackles and 2.5 sacks.
Watts and the Presidents close the 2012 regular season on Saturday with the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title on the line at Waynesburg. The winner of the 40th edition of the PAC Backyard Brawl will earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
The Academic All-District teams are divided into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada. This is the second year of the expanded Academic All-America program as CoSIDA moved from recognizing a University Division (Division I) and a College Division (all non Division I) and has doubled the number of scholar-athletes honored. The expanded teams include NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III participants, while the College Division team combines NAIA, Canadian and two-year schools.
