CENTER VALLEY, PA (11/24/09) - The Colgate football team captured one of the four major Patriot League awards for the 2009 season, as freshman
Demitri Diamond (Stevenson Ranch, Calif.) won the Rookie of the Year honor. Diamond is the sixth Raider to win this award.
Colgate also placed eight players on the all-league team, including five first-team honorees. First team selections were running back
Nate Eachus (Drums, Pa.), wide receiver
Pat Simonds (Sidney, N.Y.), offensive lineman
Ryan Gross (Barnegat, N.J.), defensive lineman
Paul Mancuso (Somers, N.Y.) and defensive back
Uzi Idah (Rolling Hills Estate, Calif.). On the second unit Colgate had running back
Jordan McCord (Chicago, Ill.), defensive lineman
Austin Douglas (Ashburnham, Mass.), and linebacker
Greg Hadley (Fayetteville, N.Y.).
Diamond is the sixth Colgate player to earn Rookie of the Year honors joining Jim Tierney (1989), Ryan Vena (1996), Ed Weiss (1997), Jordan Scott (2005) and Nate Eachus (2008). Diamond stepped in as one of the Raiders top defensive players starting all 11 games, notching 35 tackles, one tackle for loss, an interception and five pass breakups. He was the fifth-leading tackler on the team, recording 26 solo stops. Diamond joins Lafayette defensive back Kenya Allen (1998) as the only defensive players to win the award.
Full All-League Release