SELINSGROVE, (Pa.) — Susquehanna University junior center Dave Wonderlick (Shenandoah/Shenandoah Valley H.S.) and sophomore punter Ryan Hollis (Mifflin/Juniata H.S.) are both on the 1999 GTE Academic All-America District II College Division Football Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) in the District II region.
Susquehanna is one of six schools overall, and just two in the Middle Atlantic Conference, to place two players on the all-district team.
To be nominated for the GTE Academic All-America Team, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore with a 3.2 cumulative grade-point average, and either a starter or significant reserve on their respective teams. College Division District II includes all NCAA Division II and III schools, as well as NAIA Division II schools from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
All 24 members of the District II team will join the all-district picks from the other seven districts on the 1999 national ballot. The 1999 GTE College Division Academic All-America Football Team is scheduled to be announced on Tuesday, December 7.
“This is a great honor for the players, the program and the university, and is very well deserved,” said 10th-year Susquehanna football head coach Steve Briggs.
The 5-10, 245-pound Wonderlick is in his first season as a full-time starter, but has become the top linemen on a Crusader offense which is second in the MAC in rushing (164.6 yards per game). He has yet to allow a sack in 289 pass plays, giving up just three-and-a-half hurries. He also leads the squad in knockdown blocks with 16.
He was a key member as the offensive line that was the team’s Gus Weber Crusader Players of the Week, sponsored by the Golden Corral Family Restaurant in Shamokin Dam, in a 27-7 win at Juniata on October 9. The line led a punishing attack which rolled up 285 yards rushing, 28 first downs and didn’t allow a sack, while keeping the ball for 37:28 against a Juniata defense which was ranked 11th in NCAA Division III against the rush (61.8 yards per game) at the time.
Wonderlick is the top student in the junior class with a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average as a communications/theatre arts major. In addition to his perfect academic record, he’s also a University Scholar, was inducted into Alpha Lambda Delta (freshman honor society), is active in the campus chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, and has been a corresponding sports writer for both The Pottsville Republican and the Reading Eagle-Times, near his hometown. He was also one of five students chosen for a Susquehanna All-Star team for College Bowl — “the varsity sports of the mind.”
He is the son of Len and Louise Wonderlick.
The 6-0, 160-pound Hollis is in his second season as the team’s starting punter, presently ranking fourth in the MAC in punting with a 37.1-yard average in 44 punts. He has a long punt of 62 yards. Hollis was third in the MAC and 19th in NCAA Division III (39.1avg.) as a transfer freshman in 1998. He presently leads the program’s career punting average list at 37.1, and is ninth all-time in punting yardage with 3355 yards. In addition to punting, Hollis has also caught five passes for 71 yards (14.2 avg.) as a split end this season.
Also a sprinter on the Crusader track and field team, Hollis is a business major with a 3.26 cumulative grade-point average. He has made the Dean’s List once in his first two semesters at Susquehanna, also making it once at Florida State before transferring after his freshman year. During the summer, he volunteers his time as a football coach with the Mifflintown Little Indians of the Juniata Valley Midget Football League.
He is the son of Gordon and Joan Hollis.
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