FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Hawks88]

It looks like the one near Nashville is called GreyStone Golf Club. There's a Greystone Country Club near Birmingham.

[Ron Boerger]

They played their 2024 championship at Greystone Golf Club. Maybe it's a typo.

[Hawks88]

You're right. It's probably the one near Nashville. The one in Birmingham has a Senior Tour event in May every year so they might not want another event so close to that.

[jknezek]

Yep. 99% sure it's not the one here in Birmingham. The Regions Tradition sucks up all of May for that course.

[Ron Boerger]

D3football.com announced its All-America teams today:

Tyler Huettel, K, Trinity (1st team)
Tonny Garcia, G, Berry (2nd)
Cade Rabson, LB, Trinity (3rd)
Brandon Cade, RB, Berry (4th)
Jake Whitten, S, Berry (4th)

All are seniors.  Congratulations to these outstanding young men!

[scottiedoug]

Grant Henderson, CB, Maryville (2nd)

[Ron Boerger]

That would be next season 

Meanwhile, the CSC announced their 2024 Academic All-District Football Teams today; the SAA was represented as listed below.

Student-athletes selected as CSC Academic All-America® finalists are denoted with an asterisk and will advance to the national ballot to be voted on by CSC members. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced January 28, 2025.

Berry:
McCormack Langford
Christian Lewis
Jack Murray
Hayden Cagle
DreShawn Stevens
Grady Bryant

Centre:
Ollie Carter
Temes Kahsay
Dant Bowling
Blake Busson
Cam Tegge

Hendrix:
Kanyn Utley
Brayden Bice

Millsaps:
Nicholas Eaton
Nathan Johnson
Tre Jones

Rhodes:
Robert Daniel
Jacob Guin
Alex LeBlanc
Iman Lohrasbi
Jelani Lovett
Luke Pape
Evan Reeder
Max Sale

Sewanee:
Buck Hardin
John Wilson

Southwestern (none)

Trinity:
Ryan Back
Caleb Bayer*
John Adrian Dioli
Winston Hutchison
Foster Malloy
John Kohl McAdams
Anthony Njoku
Alex Thiel

[Ron Boerger]

The SAA has rebranded.  Meh.  They also have redone their website in conjunction with Sidearm.

[Ron Boerger]

Tucker Horn's younger brother, QB Welker (3965 yds, 51 TDs this season to go with 568 yds rushing and 8TDs at TAPPS state semi-finalist Lubbock Christian HS), will sign to play at Trinity tomorrow per a tweet from the school.  He's (self-)listed as 6'2", 205 which would give him an inch and ten pounds on Tucker. 

There's nobody coming back at QB that saw much playing time (Hondo Franklin saw the field in six games but threw only 18 passes total, completing nine), so the position should be wide open in training camp. 

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity's Jerheme Urban was named to the AFCA Board of Directors, where he will be the second D3 representative (the other is Jim Catanzaro of Lake Forest College, who serves as first VP). 

[Ron Boerger]

Former Trinity PK Tyler Huettel signed last week with the San Antonio Gunslingers (what a franchise name to bring back!) of the Indoor Football League.  According to a video clip posted by his mother, his first kickoff in the league scored two points after it sailed through the IFL's narrow uprights. 

[Ron Boerger]

Southwestern announces a $1M gift towards what will be known as the Kevin and Elizabeth Dice Field (guess who made the donation), part of their new multi-sports complex which will include a football field (sans track).  You can see a rendering at https://www.southwestern.edu/live/news/16840-alumni-couple-pledge-1-million-gift-for-new

In what is not-so-good news, this apparently represents the first sizeable donation since the Cullen Trust for Education issued a $3M challenge grant towards the cost of the new facility in July of last year.  Per the story "[t]he Dice family answered the call and is encouraging their fellow Southwestern supporters to help raise the additional $2 million needed to complete the Cullen challenge."

Total cost of the new facility is estimated at $9.2M, no doubt before the impact of any of the tariffs announced earlier this afternoon could be calculated.  Construction will not start until the entire amount is raised.  The plans were recently reworked to "more closely align with the needs of an NCAA Division III on-campus venue" and will include "a grandstand, a stadium press box, a synthetic turf playing surface, a locker room, and a concourse area".  According to the rendering there will be no visitor stands in this revised design.