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Dannelly's NAIA All-Decade Team Announced

Posted by Jason Dannelly - Tue, Dec 29, 2009 - [Football] - Viewed 2842 times

Emmert was named Offensive
Player of the Decade (2005 Photo)

Click Here to View the NAIA All-Decade Team by Jason Dannelly

Grand Island, Neb. – NAIA Sports Guru Jason Dannelly has announced his NAIA All-Decade team which represents the best small college football players in the NAIA from 2000-2009. The team was selected based upon All-Americans from Dannelly's lists since 2002 as well as the NAIA Coaches' All-American team since 2000.

"It's a daunting task to try to narrow down the best players over the last 10 years into a single list," Dannelly said. "There have been so many great players though the years that some of the best in the NAIA didn't even make the list. I think that is a testament to the great players the NAIA has produced in the last ten seasons."

Headlining the list was Dannelly's Offensive Player of the Decade, quarterback Tyler Emmert from Carroll College. Emmert helped to lead the Saints to four national titles during his time in Helena, Mont. Additionally Emmert finished as the NAIA's career total offense leader with 13,979 total yards and highest career pass completion percentage at 70.4 percent.

Despite starting the majority of his freshman season at Carroll College, Emmert did not finish as the Saints starting quarterback for their first title in 2002 due to an injury. However in his sophomore through senior seasons Emmert would start in all of the Saints games and win national player of the year honors in each season by either the NAIA Coaches or the Victory Sports Network (Now CollegeFanz.com).

"Emmert was the type of player you wanted to have the ball every time you trailed late," added Dannelly. "If it was a big game and Carroll needed to engineer a game winning drive, Emmert would find a way to get the Saints the victory."

Defensive Player of the Decade honors went to defensive back Lynn Scott of NW Oklahoma State. Scott was a three time All-American and three time Scholar Athlete in the NAIA. Scott was an original member of what Ranger fans and NAIA fans coined as "The Black Cloud" defense of NW Oklahoma State. Additionally Scott returned four punts for touchdowns in his senior season with the Rangers.

"There have been some great defensive backs in the NAIA over the last ten seasons but the total package was Lynn Scott," said Dannelly. "Scott was a smart football player, a fantastic athlete and one of the hardest hitters ever in the NAIA."

Scott wins the award despite only playing one year in the decade something Dannelly felt was a testament to his ability.

"Owen Koeppen, Trevor Holleman and Brian Kurtz were all three players who had a fantastic career in this decade. Each proved they could be considered the best player on this team. Lynn Scott was just at another level in comparison to those three."

Coach of the Decade was no easy choice as the national championship game was dominaited by three programs; Georgetown College, Saint Francis (Ind.) and Sioux Falls. Mike Van Diest narrowly beat out the competition to be named coach of the decade with five national titles. Kalen DeBoer of Sioux Falls followed with three national championships while Bill Cronin won two titles at Georgetown. Over the last decade Van Diest has compiled a 125-14 record with the Saints and did not lose a Frontier Conference title.

Carroll College finished with the most players on the team with nine while Sioux Falls finished with eight. The Great Plains of Athletic Conference had 13 representatives on the team with the Frontier Conference and Mid States Football Association finishing with 11.