Jan. 5, 2004

Allendale, Mich. - Senior safety Scott Mackey and junior defensive tackle Keyonta Marshall headline five Lakers that earned D2Football.com All-American honors it was announced. Mackey and Marshall were named D2football.com First-Team All-America, while senior place kicker David Hendrix was a second-team honoree. Running back Michael Tennessee and outside linebacker/defensive back Lucius Hawkins earned honorable mention plaudits. Grand Valley State captured its second straight NCAA DII National Championship with a 10-3 victory over North Dakota in the title game. The Lakers have also made three consecutive trips to Florence, Ala. for the championship game.

Mackey, who was a second-team honoree in 2002, led GVSU with 96 tackles and six interceptions. Scott, who set the GVSU career-record for interceptions with 17, scored the Lakers' only touchdown in a 10-3 win over Saginaw Valley State in second-round action with a 46-yard interception return. A two-time GLIAC Defensive Back of the Year, Mackey also set the GVSU career-record for games played (54). Marshall, a second-team pick as a sophomore, led all defensive linemen with 44 total tackles. Keyonta, who earned First-Team All-GLIAC plaudits en route to being named the Defensive Linemen of the Year for the second straight year, added nine tackles for loss, four QB sacks, five pass deflections and two fumble recoveries from his defensive tackle position.

Hendrix, who was a First-Team American Football Coaches Association All-American, set the NCAA DII record for field goals in a season with 25. He broke the previous record of 20 that was most recently set by Henrix Juul-Nielsen of Nebraska-Kearney in 2002. David connected on 35-of-his-final-42 field goal attempts in his career, including streaks of 10, 9 and 8 consecutive makes during his final two seasons. Hendrix was 15-for-15 from 20-29 yards and 7-for-10 from 30-39 yards in the 2003 National Championship season. Tennessee rewrote the Laker offensive record book during his junior campaign en route to being a First-Team All-GLIAC. Michael rushed for a GVSU single-season record 1,633 yards and 16 TDs on 342 carries. Tennessee set the GVSU single-game (49) and single-season (342) rushing attempts record. In addition, Michael caught a team-high 63 passes for 561 yards and three TDs and his 2,194 all-purpose yards also established a GVSU single-season record. Hawkins tallied 75 total tackles, 12 tackles for loss and five QB sacks on the year. Lucius keyed the Lakers' victory over Saginaw Valley State in the Northeast regional final with four QB sacks and came up with another key defensive play in the title game versus North Dakota when he caused a fumble and returned it 59 yards to set up GVSU's only TD.

Grand Valley State, the two-time defending NCAA DII National Champions, is one of the most successful programs in college football over the last 12 years. In the 1990's, GVSU was 80-31-2 (.717). GVSU has the best record by percentage in DII since 2000 with a 48-6 mark (.888) and GVSU's 48 wins since 2000 rank as the second most in DII football behind Valdosta State. The Lakers have appeared in three straight NCAA DII National Championship games (2001, 2002, 2003). GVSU is 62-14 (.805) in the last five years and 240-111-3 in 32 years of playing football.