Tyrone captured the Mountain Athletic Conference Nittany Division outright in 2005, after sharing the inaugural MAFC title with Bellwood-Antis and Philipsburg-Osceola a year ago. Bellwood-Antis was the Nittany runner-up in 2005, and the two local teams showed the reason why, with the number of first and second team all-star selections.
The Second Annual Mountain Athletic Football Conference All-Star Banquet was held Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005, at the Smithfield Fire Hall, Huntingdon.
Particularly representative of the dominance of the Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis teams is the telling fact that of 13 first team selections for the first team all-stars, only two players are not either Golden Eagles or Blue Devils and nine of an even dozen on the first team defense are from Tyrone or Bellwood-Antis.
The Nittany champion Golden Eagles placed Robert Emigh (center), Tyler Hoover (tackle), Doug Morrow (tight end), Trey Brockett (wide out), Leonard Wilson (quarterback), Brit Mingle and Tyler Gillmen (running backs) and Buddy Stotler (place kicker) on the First Team Offense, and James Updike and Thad Graham (guards), Stotler (tackle) and Shane Barr (wide out) on the Second Team Offense.
Wilson and Mingle move up from the 2004 Second Team. Emigh, Wilson, Mingle, Stotler, Brockett, Graham and Barr are seniors, while Hoover, Morrow, Updike and Gillmen are juniors.
On the other side of the ball, Hoover (defensive lineman), Mingle (linebacker), and Wilson and Brockett (defensive backs) were named to the First Team Defense. Morrow and senior Matthew Lauder (defensive ends), Emigh and Stotler (defensive linemen), Gillmen and Updike (linebackers) and Barr and sophomore Johnny Franco (defensive backs) were nominated to the Second Team Defense. Hoover moves up from a Second Team selection last year.
Bellwood-Antis, which lost only to Tyrone in the MAFC, places Adam Martin (tackle), Dan Kovac (wide out) and Josh Kleinfelter (running back) on the MAFC First Team Offense, and Tony DelGrosso (guard), Troy Brunner (tight end) and Evan Celmo (place kicker) on the Second Team.
Kleinfelter moves up from the 2004 Second Team, while both DelGrosso and Brunner repeat from last year’s second team.
Martin, Kovac, DelGrosso and Brunner are seniors, while Kleinfelter and Celmo are juniors.
Brunner (defensive end), Martin (defensive line), DelGrosso (linebacker), Kovac and Kleinfelter (defensive backs) and Kovac (punter) were chosen for the First Team Defense. Juniors Evan Hughes (linebacker) and Devon Clapper (special team) were selected to the Second Team Defense.
This was the second straight First Team pick for Tony DelGrosso, while Brunner and Martin both move up from the 2004 Second Team Defense.
This year a new award, the Scholar/Athlete Award, was presented to a senior from each team in the MAFC. The Eagles’ Thad Graham and Blue Devils’ L. J. Seidel were chosen from the respective teams.
Tyrone and Seven Mountains Division champ Bellefonte received the varsity MAFC championship awards and Bellwood-Antis and Huntingdon received the junior high championship trophies for winning their respective divisions.
