2021 CoSIDA Academic All-District Football Team
Every year, the Hillsdale College football program has two important goals: success on the field, and equal success in the classroom and community.
Once again, the members of Team 129 lived up to those standards, as represented by three of their players who were recognized on Thursday by the College Sports Information Directors of America for their combination of athletic accomplishments and academic achievements this past season.
Charger seniors Alex Anschutz, Cole Johnson and Joe Schneider were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team, members of an elite group of 26 players representing schools from the four conferences that make up Super Region 1 at the NCAA Division II level.
The program, which has been around since 1952, recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field or court and in the classroom. The CoSIDA Academic All-America® program separately recognizes football honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.
Hillsdale's three honorees in 2021 are tied with Bentley for second most from a single team in Super Region 1, behind Slippery Rock's four honorees, and the Chargers are one of just two Great Midwest Athletic Conference teams with players recognized for the honor.
Two of Hillsdale's three honorees are previous CoSIDA Academic All-District award winners, and all three players have been key contributors for the Chargers on the field for multiple seasons.
Anschutz earned Academic All-District and Academic All-American honors from CoSIDA in 2020-21 and is a two-year team captain and a four-year starter who's earned back-to-back second team All-G-MAC honors as Hillsdale's STAR, a safety/linebacker hybrid position. He's finishing his career with his best season to date, with 106 tackles, four for loss, two interceptions, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, a blocked extra point and five pass breakups.
Off the field, Anschutz, a Biochemistry major, earned the President's Scholar-Athlete Award at Hillsdale College for maintaining a GPA of 3.8 or higher in both 2020 and 2021, and presented a semester-long research project in the spring of 2020 highlighting key points of the mechanisms involved in the human dopamine transporter in the brain. He's currently on track to graduate with high honors from Hillsdale College.
Johnson is also a returning honoree, having been named to the Academic All-District team and the Academic All-American second team in 2020-21. A 2021 team captain and four-year starter on the offensive line, Johnson has anchored the unit throughout his career, earning honorable mention All-G-MAC in 2019 as a sophomore and first-team All-G-MAC honors in the spring of 2021.
As a student, Johnson also earned the President's Scholar-Athlete Award at Hillsdale College for 2021, and was named Outstanding Senior by the Hillsdale Financial Management department this spring. He's made the dean's list all eight semesters at Hillsdale and earned a 4.0 GPA in each of the last two semesters. A Financial Management major, Johnson is on track to graduate with high honors from Hillsdale College.
Hillsdale's third honoree, Joe Schneider, is a first-time recipient of All-District honors after a stand-out senior season. The safety was a leader for the Charger defense, finishing with a career-high 52 tackles, four interceptions, and a team-high nine pass breakups for a Charger secondary that led the country in interceptions (20).
Off the field, Schneider is a multi-time Academic All-Conference nominee who's an active volunteer, including as a host working closely with a special needs child from the community for the Charger Victory Day celebration, and as a guest reader at local preschools. Schneider also helped to organize the Charger SAAC Trunk-or-Treat fundraiser for Make-a-Wish.
All three of Hillsdale's first-team Academic All-District® honorees in football advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® ballot. First- and second-team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced on Dec. 17.
Hillsdale, meanwhile, finishes out the 2021 season in the America's Crossroads Bowl against GLVC representative Truman State, and Anschutz, Johnson and Schneider all will be looking to go out on top in the final game of their careers.
Photos Courtesy of Steve Southerington and Anthony Lupi '22