Hunter Smith Named Division I Athletic Directors Academic All-Star
December 18, 2006 | Football
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Senior kicker Hunter Smith has been named to
the ninth annual NCAA Division I Football Championships Subdivision
Athletic Directors Academic All-Star Team.
The senior was one of 54 members chosen from a field of 94 nominees
for the team.
Smith is the first Gardner-Webb player to be chosen for the
Athletic Directors Academic All-Star Team since the Bulldogs moved
to Division I football in 2000. The Greensboro, N.C., native
carries a strong 3.7 GPA in his major of Business
Administration.
The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder's selection to the Academic All-Star Team
caps a stellar senior campaign, with Smith becoming the first
player in Big South Conference history to earn All-Conference
honors in each of his four seasons of competition.
A first-team All-Big South choice in 2006, Smith booted home
9-of-11 field goals (81.8 percent) and made 4-of-5 from 40 yards
out. His long make for the season was from 47 yards and Smith made
a pair of 40-plus yard field goals - including the game winner from
40 yards with five seconds left - in a comeback win at Liberty on
October 21.
Smith was solid all-around as the Bulldogs' place kicker in 2006,
making all 26 PAT kicks and averaging 60.4 yards per kickoff with a
career-best 14 touchbacks. The former Western Guilford (N.C.) High
standout finished his career third in GWU history in total points
(229 points), second in field goals made (37) and third in PAT
makes (118).
Smith was a second-team All-Big South selection in 2003, 2004 and
2005. He was one of four Big South Conference players selected to
the FCS Athletic Directors Academic All-Star Team in 2006.
Now in its 14th year, the Division I Football Championship
Subdivision Athletics Directors Association's mission is to enhance
Football Championship Subdivision football. The Association is
administered by NACDA, now in its 42nd year. NACDA is the
professional and educational association for more than 6,100
college athletics administrators at more than 1,600 institutions
throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. More than 2,000
athletics administrators annually attend the NACDA Convention.
