Charger football team and players receiving pre-season accolades

Hillsdale College Release

The Sporting News ranks Chargers 23rd in preseason poll
July 9, 2008 - Some of the post-season accolades earned by the Hillsdale College football team in 2007 are coming back in the form of pre-season recognition in 2008.

Senior linebacker Tom Korte and junior offensive lineman Jared Veldheer were each named to The Sporting News' Division II Pre-Season All-American Team, released this week.

In addition, the team was ranked 23rd in its preseason Division II poll. Last year, Hillsdale was ranked 25th in the nation before its Week 11 loss to Saginaw Valley State. It marked the first time this decade that the Chargers had been ranked among the top 25 football teams in Division II.

Hillsdale and Grand Valley State are the only GLIAC schools with two players on the All-American Team, a group that contains an impressive total of seven players from the conference on the team.

Korte and Veldheer, both products of Grand Rapids-area high schools, have started every game of their careers to date.

Korte has been named First-Team All-GLIAC each of the past two seasons, and in 2007, earned his first First-Team All-Region award. He's led the Chargers in tackles in each of his three seasons with the team, and leads the team in interceptions during that time span also. He's won the Ralph Miller III Award two years in a row, and only his head coach - Keith Otterbein - has won the award three times. Korte has also been named Academic All-GLIAC twice.

Veldheer has quickly established himself as one of the top left tackles in the GLIAC, starting 22 games over the past two seasons. He was named Second-Team All-GLIAC and Second-Team All-Region in 2007, and was a rock-steady component of an offense that scored more than 400 points last season.

Another prominent publication, Lindey's College Football Preview magazine, selected three Hillsdale players on its Second Team All-American preseason list.

Tight end Matt Patillo and wide receiver Aaron Waldie joined Korte on that magazine's Second-Team list.

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