Four Polar Bears named to National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society team

By Tim Glon

| NFF Hampshire Society release (.pdf) |

ADA — Four members of the Ohio Northern football team were named to the prestigious National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society team for the 2019 season.

Seniors Ethan Hale (Galena/Big Walnut), Anthony McFadden (Chillicthe/Paint Valley), Brenden Medina (Oberlin) and Grant Nieszala (Lambertville, Mich./Bedford) all received the honor.

NFF Hampshire Honor Society, which is comprised of college football players from all divisions of play who each maintained a cumulative 3.2 GPA or better throughout their college careers.

An impressive 1,471 players from 370 schools qualified for membership in the Society's 14th year.

Hale was also named an Academic All-American, is a three-time Academic All-Ohio Athletic Conference honoree and is majoring in criminal justice.

Hale started all 10 games this season at left guard in his first full-time season as a starter.

He played in 27 games in his career on the offensive line.

McFadden started 21 games at quarterback and is a two-time Second Team All-OAC honoree.

He completed 146-of-229 passes for 2,047 yards and 25 touchdowns with only four interceptions this season and ranked second in the league with a school-record 171.4 passer efficiency rating.

McFadden wrapped up his career ranked eighth all-time in ONU history with 4,671 passing yards and second with a 61.9 completions percentage.

His career passer efficiency rating of 164.7 shattering the long-standing mark of 150.64 set by Joe Zarlinga from 1995-98.

He also had 51 touchdown passes with only nine interceptions in his 25-game career.

Medina was a four-year member of the football team and was a three-time Academic All-OAC honoree.

He played in two games in his career and registered one tackle.

Nieszala earned Second Team All-Conference accolades at center in his first full season as a starter.

He played in 24 career games with 14 career starts, 10 of which came in 2019. Nieszala started eight games at right guard and six games at center in his career.

The Polar Bears finished the season 6-4 overall and were tied for third in the OAC with a 6-3 league mark under 16th-year head coach Dean Paul.

ONU also clinched its 23rd upper division OAC finish in the past 25 seasons.