Bulldogs earn football awards

Published 9:22 pm Tuesday, November 14, 2017

The post season Region 1-3A awards are in for the players of the Claiborne Bulldogs football team with Lukas Neely leading the way by sharing a big award.

Neely was a force on defense this season and was a tackling machine. His efforts earned him the Co-Defensive Player of the Year Award. Neely had 173 total, 17.5 tackles for loss, four sacks, four fumble recoveries, two blocked punts with one touchdown, and had two blocked extra points.

Claiborne also had a huge academic award winner and that was Zach Fejeran who earned Academic All-Region honors with an impressive 4.0 GPA and he also scored 22 on the ACT.

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The Bulldogs had five players named All-Region First Team including, Matt Cupp DT, Elijah Beason RB, Haydn Hollin WR, Eli Stone QB and Tyler Napier Punter.

Claiborne also had five Second Team All-Region players including Gage Callebs DE, Isaac Fugate LB, Bryce Laws RB, Storm Livesay DB and Grayson Howard Kicker.

The Bulldogs struggled through the loss of their starting quarterback to reach the playoffs, losing in round one to Alcoa. Head Coach Nathan Medlin was in his second season and his 2017 team made good progress despite the adversity of injured players.