In the illustrious history of Wittenberg football, no defensive player has ever earned more postseason awards in one season than Eddie Vallery ’11, who capped a phenomenal 2009 season with Defensive Player of the Year honors from d3football.com.

The award, a first for Wittenberg football, came on the heels of several other prestigious postseason honors, starting with NCAC Defensive Player of the Year. The defensive end also became the first Tiger to take home the Hank Critchfield Award since Juan Howard in 2001.

Vallery went on to claim first-team All-NCAC and first-team All-Great Lakes Region from d3hoops.com. That set the stage for another program first as Vallery claimed All-America honors from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), the Associated Press (“Little All-America,” which includes Division II and III and NAIA) and d3football.com.

Vallery recorded 73 tackles, including 22 for a loss, which ranks second in school history. He led the NCAC and ranked among the best in all of NCAA Division III with a school record 16.5 sacks. His efforts spearheaded the best defense by almost any statistical measure in both the NCAC and NCAA Division III as a whole as Wittenberg tied a school record with 12 wins while advancing to the national quarterfinals in 2009.