CLEVELAND - The Mid-American Conference announced its All-Academic Team on Tuesday and four members of the Western Michigan football team found their way onto the list. Anthony Gebhart led the quartet by becoming the 26th Bronco to earn Academic All-MAC at least twice in his career. Dustin Duclo, Tim Hiller and Phillip Swanson all were honored with this award for the first time in their respective careers.
Western Michigan football has had four or more of its members Academic All-MAC in one season 12 times in program history but this is the first time the feat has been accomplished since 2004. WMU has enjoyed five seasons where five or more Broncos earned the honor and in 1998 Western Michigan boasted a program-record nine selections.
Gebhart, who earned Academic All-MAC in 2006 as a junior, is currently pursuing his economics degree and has a 3.83 GPA. He was named First Team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District twice in his career and was recently named First Team ESPN The Magazine All-America, becoming the first member of the football program to earn the honor in a decade. He is being honored at the Dearborn Inn on Dec. 13 when he receives the John S. Pingel Award for being named the Michigan Chapter of the National Football Foundation's Division I Scholar Athlete of the Year.
The three remaining Bronco honorees hope to join Gebhart with future selections to the Academic All-MAC team as each as at least one more year of eligibility. Duclo, a junior linebacker, is a computer science major who currently has a 3.50 GPA. He is one of 10 football Broncos with a GPA at or over 3.5. He is the seventh linebacker to earn a spot on the team and the first since Scott Niles did so in back-to-back seasons (1997-98).
Hiller, a sales and business marketing major, is the only member of the Bronco football team with a 4.0 GPA. He is one of nine Bronco student-athletes to carry that high of a GPA as Western Michigan University draws to the end of the Fall Semester. The Orrville, Ohio, native has in fact never received a grade lower than an ?A' at any level of his academic career and was the only male student-athlete in the conference to earn Scholar Athlete of the Week three times this fall.
Swanson, a redshirt freshmen from Grand Haven, Mich., has the second-highest GPA on the team with a 3.90 in journalism. This is the first time Swanson has been nominated for Academic All-MAC. He is coming off a season where he started every game at offensive guard, finishing with 993 snaps - a total thanks second on the team.
Western Michigan football is now gearing towards National Signing Day on Feb. 6, 2008. The Broncos will open the 2008 season with their first trip to Lincoln, Neb., for an Aug. 30 date with Nebraska of the Big 12.
