The 2023 Academic All-District Football Teams, selected by the College Sports Communicators, recognizing the nation’s top student athletes in the NAIA for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom has been announced and Dordt has five athletes on the list.
Brenden Pieper (Sophomore; New Ulm, Minnesota), Tyler Wieringa (Junior; Sioux Center, Iowa), Abraham Stoesz (Senior; Mountain Lake, Minnesota), Nick Wellen (Senior; Brush, Colorado) and Nathan Warner (Junior; Glencoe, Minnesota) all claimed the honor with Wellen earning the honor for a second time and Stoesz a third time.
CSC Release | PDF Version
Pieper had 769 rushing yards this season with 12 touchdowns and a 5.5 yards per carry average. Pieper is majoring in accounting and business administration. He was an All-GPAC Honorable Mention selection this season.
Wieringa started 11 games at linebacker and had 47 solo and 46 assisted tackles with nine tackles for loss, two sacks and an interception. Wieringa is studying biology and was an All-GPAC Honorable Mention selection this season.
Stoesz had 35 solo tackles and 30 assisted stops with 5.5 tackles for loss and two interceptions at safety. Stoesz studies engineering and earned CSC Academic All-District honors in 2021 and 2022 and Academic All-American honors in 2022 while earning Second-Team All-GPAC
accolades. This season he was a first-team all-conference selection.
Wellen led the team with 836 rushing yards and averaged 6.8 yards per carry with five touchdowns. Wellen is studying engineering and repeats as a CSC Academic All-District selection from 2022.
Warner started for on the offensive line for a team that gained 249 yards of rushing offense per game and ranked third in the nation. Warner is a digital media production major and has twice earned second-team honors in the All-GPAC voting.
Athletes must be at least a sophomore academically and maintain at least a 3.5 grade point average to be nominated for College Sports Communicators All-Academic honors.
No players from Northwestern College in Orange City were named.
The link to the full press release is here.
