W&J claims 2017 ECAC Division III Team of the Year honors 1/29/2018 4:05:22 PM ECAC Announces 2017 Football Teams of the Year and Lambert Awards (ecacsports.com) DANBURY, Conn. (pacathletics.org) – After yet another successful football campaign, Washington & Jefferson College has been named the 2017 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Football Team of the Year. W&J earned the award after completing an 11-1 season which finished in the second round of the NCAA Division III Football Championship after hosting a pair of playoff games at Cameron Stadium for the first time since 2004. The Presidents captured their league-record 25th Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) championship and made the program's 25th appearance in the NCAA championship field, which is the second most trips all-time. This season, W&J had 15 student-athletes named All-PAC and 15th-year head coach Mike Sirianni earned his seventh Coach of the Year award from the conference. It would be the first of three such honors for Sirianni, who also claimed Region 2 Coach of the Year accolades, and was a national Coach of the Year finalist, from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), while also securing the ECAC's Division III Coach of the Year award. In W&J's 42-0 PAC-clinching win over Waynesburg University on November 11, Sirianni broke the program's career wins record with his 138th triumph, passing former head coach and W&J Hall of Famer John Luckhardt. Following standout senior campaigns, wide receiver Jesse Zubik (Sewickley, Pa. | Avonworth) and cornerback O'Shea Anderson (Rochester, Pa. | Rochester) were both named All-Americans. Zubik was a unanimous First Team selection after landing on the Associated Press, AFCA and D3football.com teams. The D3football.com South Region and ECAC Division III Offensive Player of the Year also excelled in the classroom, adding Second Team Academic All-America honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as well. Anderson was a consensus All-American as a First Team selection by the AP and a Third Team pick on D3football.com. Both were First Team All-Region picks and five others claimed all-region honors and three Presidents joined Zubik on the CoSIDA Academic All-District teams. All ECAC Award recipients, along with ECAC major award winners, football All-Stars and Red Hill Officiating Award honorees will be honored on Thursday, February 22 at the 82nd ECAC Awards Banquet at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Story contributed by the Washington & Jefferson College sports information office