True freshman Anfernee Gurley won a pair of awards as Eastern Washington University football players of the year were announced and honored at Sunday’s (Feb. 25) annual EWU Awards Presentation at the Showalter Auditorium on the EWU campus in Cheney, Wash.
A 2017 graduate of Archbishop Murphy High School in Everett, Wash., Gurley was selected as EWU’s Freshman of the Year and was the Special Teams Player of the Year. All-Big Sky junior safety Mitch Fettig earned player of the year honors on defense and sophomore All-Big Sky running back Antoine Custer Jr. won on offense.
A new award, the Golden EKG (Eastern Kind of Guy) was presented to junior center Spencer Blackburn. Blackburn was a second team All-Big Sky selection for the second year in a row in 2017.
In addition, receiving Scout Team Players of the Year were defensive lineman Mitchell Johnson, wide receiver Andrew Boston and quarterback Gunner Talkington, and the recipient for special teams was Marques Hampton Jr.
Senior defensive end Marcus Saugen was given the Pat Roberts Memorial Award for achieving academic and athletic excellence. The 2014 graduate of North Central High School in Spokane, Wash., played 50 games as an Eagle, and finished with 89 total tackles with three sacks.
Receiving team captains awards from the 2017 season were senior defensive tackle Andre Lino, senior defensive end Albert Havili, senior wide receiver Nic Sblendorio and junior quarterback Gage Gubrud.
In addition, four former Eagles representing the “Eagle Football Network” fund-raising group were honored with the Tom Oswald Memorial Award. They included punter Ryan Donckers (letterwinner in 2004-05), safety Bryan Jarrett (2005-06-07), offensive lineman John Rice (2007-08-09) and offensive lineman Paul Terrell (2001-02-03-04). Larry Beelaert was also honored as part of the EFN.
Other honors won during the 2017 season were presented at the event, which concluded with the introduction and recognition of Eastern’s 14 seniors. In all, the 14 seniors concluded their careers with 127 career starts on offense and defense, with eight of them concluding their careers as four-year letterwinners. In all, the 14 seniors played a collective total of 433 games, including 53 by Albert Havili which were three shy of the school record of 55.
Several of Eastern’s 14 Eagle seniors were part of EWU’s Big Sky Conference championships in 2013, 2014 and 2016, with playoff berths all three of those seasons. Eastern won 34 of 41 Big Sky Conference games and 48 games overall in the last five years, starting in 2013 when many of those seniors were redshirts.
