DREW SMITH RECIPIENT OF NCAA POST-GRAD SCHOLARSHIP

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (February 27, 2008)–Hampden-Sydney senior receiver Drew Smith (Richmond, VA/Mills Godwin) is one of 174 collegiate athletes to receive a postgraduate scholarship of $7,500 from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the NCAA office in Indianapolis announced today.

Smith, who garnered countless honors and awards for his performance on the field during the football Tigers' 2007 ODAC Championship season, was honored as one of only 11 college football players across the country, in all divisions, to receive the scholarship. Other football winners included student-athletes from UCLA, Notre Dame and Yale University.

In the process of helping Hampden-Sydney to its first conference title since 1987, Smith set several school records on his way to earning first team All-ODAC, ODAC Offensive Player of the Year, All-South Region and first team AFCA All-America recognition. Smith set the single-season Hampden-Sydney records with 110 receptions (also an ODAC record) for 1,616 yards, while catching eight touchdowns. He is the Tigers' career receiving yards leader with 4,244 yards, career receiving touchdowns leader with 37, single-game catches leader with 15 and holds the mark for consecutive games with at least one reception (41). Off the field, Smith was an Academic All-District selection.

Smith was the Dudley Award winner as the top Division II/III and NAIA football player in the Commonwealth of Virginia and was a finalist for the Gigliardi Trophy.

The NCAA awarded 58 postgraduate scholarships of $7,500 each to 29 male and 29 female student-athletes who participated in fall sports, which included men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball and men's water polo.

In addition to the fall sport honorees, the NCAA also awards 116 postgraduate scholarships to student-athletes participating in winter and spring sports in which the NCAA conducts championships or participates in as an emerging sport, for a total of 174 postgraduate scholarships annually.

To qualify for an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, a student-athlete must have an overall grade-point average of 3.2 and must have performed with distinction as a member of the varsity team in the sport in which the student-athlete was nominated. The student-athlete must be behaved, both on and off the field, in a manner that has brought credit to the student-athlete, the institution and intercollegiate athletics. The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work as a full-time or part-time graduate student.

-www.hsc.edu/athletics-