RELEASED:  Wednesday, November 14, 2007

UW-Whitewater’s Beaver Named Football Scholar-Athlete

Madison, Wis.--University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Justin Beaver has been named the 2007 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Max Sparger Football Scholar-Athlete.

A senior from Palmyra, Wis. (Palmyra-Eagle H.S.), Beaver is majoring in physical education with a minor in special education and maintains a 3.51 grade point average.  He was named to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Five College Division Football First Team this year after earning second team recognition in 2005.  Beaver has been recognized on UW-Whitewater’s Dean’s List seven semesters and is a three-time member of the WIAC Scholastic Honor Roll.

A team captain this season, Beaver helped the Warhawks to their third consecutive conference title and has appeared in two straight NCAA Division III national championship games.  He was named the WIAC Player of the Year and earned All-WIAC first team recognition for the third consecutive season.   Beaver is the conference’s all-time leader with 5,769 rushing yards and 1,051 rushing attempts, while ranking seventh with 38 rushing touchdowns.

He is a member of UW-Whitewater’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Hall of Fame Committee.  In addition, he has participated the Reading with the Warhawks program and the WIAC Food Drive.

Beaver is the fifth Warhawk football player to claim the league’s scholar-athlete honor, joining Shawn Eichorst (1990), Scott Hawig (1995), Peter Katz (2001) and Ryan Kleppe (2006).

Also nominated for this year’s scholar-athlete award were: UW-Eau Claire’s Tony Hull (Sr., Blaine, Minn./Spring Lake Park), UW-La Crosse’s Ted Everson (Sr., Rib Lake, Wis.) and Jon Gartzke (Sr., Luxemburg, Wis./Luxemburg-Casco), UW-Oshkosh’s Joe Schmitz (Sr., Colgate, Wis./Menomonee Falls) and Eric Stenbroten (Sr., Monticello, Wis.), UW-Platteville’s Matt Eastlick (Sr., Belmont, Wis.), UW-River Falls’ Bruce Baillargeon (Sr., Somerset, Wis.), Jamie Bisch (Sr., Roberts, Wis./St. Croix Central), Shane Hanson (Sr., River Falls, Wis.) and Sean Wolf (Sr., Jordan, Minn.), UW-Stevens Point’s Dustin Robinson (Sr., Florence, Wis.) and UW-Stout’s Chase Unbehaun (Sr., Chetek, Wis.).

The WIAC Scholar-Athlete Award is named after Max Sparger and sponsored by Hewlett-Packard.  Sparger served as commissioner of the Wisconsin State University Conference from July, 1971 - July, 1993.

In order to be nominated for the scholar-athlete award, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.25 grade point average, be in their last year of competition, or on schedule to graduate this academic year, and have competed for a minimum of two years.

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