REDLANDS, Calif. – University of Redlands junior punter Vicente Garcia (Fontana, CA) earned 1st Team Division III All-American honors from the Associated Press (AP), the organization announced today.
Garcia adds the 1st Team honor to the 1st Team All-American award, which he picked up earlier this week from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA).
In addition to his national honors, Garcia was also named 2nd Team All-SCIAC and 2nd Team All-West Region (d3football.com).
This season Garcia had a career year where he totaled 42 punts for 1,915 yards with a long being for 69-yards. Out of those 42 punts he had twelve land inside the 20-yard line, ten that were fair caught and another three that were touchbacks. On the season he led Division III in punting average at 45.6 yards/punt, which is a new single-season program record, beating out Sean Lipscomb's 45.2 average from 2000. He also helped the Maroon and Grey finish second in the nation in net punting at 41.16.
Garcia earned SCIAC Specialist of the Week honors back on October 25 helping the Bulldogs pick up the win against the University of La Verne. That evening he was 3-for-4 on Field Goals (41 Yards-25 Yards-21 Yards) collecting 12 points for UR. He also added four extra points. Along with his kicking duties he was also the punter on the night totaling 108 yards on just two punts, averaging 54 Yards Per Punt with a long being for 59 Yards. He had one called for a fair catch and saw both land inside the 20-yard line.
A week before that on October 18 he was selected to the d3football.com Team of the Week due to his stellar performance against Chapman University. That night he totaled six punts for a combined 278 yards, averaging 46.3 yards-per-punt. He had a long for 60-yards along with two fair catches and a touchback. He also provided four extra points.
During his career, Garcia has been named to the All-SCIAC 2nd Team twice and was selected as the SCIAC Specialist of the Week four times.