2021-22 NCAA Division II CoSIDA Academic All-America Teams
Excellence in all aspects of their craft.
That's what a Hillsdale College football player aspires to, on and off the field, and it's a standard that challenges and motivates every person who puts on the Charger blue and white.
This season, two Charger football standouts once again have received one of the highest honors available for an NCAA Division II student-athlete who excels both athletically and academically – CoSIDA Academic All-American honors.
Senior linebacker Alex Anschutz (Lowell, MI/Lowell) and senior offensive lineman Cole Johnson (Grand Ledge, MI/Grand Ledge) each were among an elite group of 26 players nationwide at the NCAA Division II level who received first team honors from CoSIDA, earning just the 23rd and 24th Academic All-American honors from CoSIDA in Hillsdale history.
CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America, began the distinguished Academic All-America® program in 1952, and since then, has honored thousands of deserving student-athletes from numerous sports across all divisions with these elite Academic All-America® scholar-athlete honors. Student-athletes must maintain a 3.3 GPA or better and are selected based on their academic and athletic achievements.
Hillsdale was one of just three programs in the nation to have multiple players selected as first-team Academic All-Americans, along with Colorado School of Mines and Wingate University. Both Anschutz and Johnson are repeat honorees, as both were named Academic All-Americans in the 2020-21 school year as well.
Anschutz earned Academic All-District and first team 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 finished his career with his best season to date, with 111 tackles, four for loss, two interceptions, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, including one returned for a touchdown, 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 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.
Both Anschutz and Johnson join Kyle Wojciechowski, who earned second-team honors in 1995 and first-team honors in 1996, as the only Charger football players to earn multiple Academic All-American honors in their careers. In total, just five Chargers have been recognized twice as Academic All-Americans across all the sports Hillsdale College offers.
Photos by Steve Southerington and Anthony Lupi '22