Football brings home plethora of awards

Despite losing in the American Championship Bowl, the Santa Monica College football team ended the season on a high note, taking home a multitude of awards. Sophomore quarterback Alfonso Medina brought home the Offensive Player of the Year award. Medina was an integral part of the team’s success this season. He broke former SMC standout Dylen Smith’s 14-year record for most touchdown passes. And his leadership helped guide the team all season.

“I’m happy for my team, we did very well this season,” said Medina. “As for the awards, I couldn’t have done this without [my teammates],” said Medina.

Qujuan Floyd, another one of SMC’s standout players, was named Defensive Player of the Year.

“When I first found out, I thought it was a joke,” said Floyd. “It was a big accomplishment for me to win over all the other defensive players in the conference.”

Floyd added that he was proud of the way his team played, and felt they ended the year in style.

“We came together as a unit and put together a successful season,” he said.

Head coach Gifford Lindheim had nothing but praise for his players.

“They [Medina and Floyd] did everything we asked of them; they have bright futures ahead of them,” said Lindheim. “These awards are a reflection of a great group of young men, and a dedicated staff.”

Lindheim was named Coach of the Year for the second straight year.

“I feel very strongly that the award is a team award, starting with my assistant coaches,” said Lindheim.

He stressed that all season long, he taught his players that football is team sport and in order to be successful they would have to rely on each other.

“You don’t get these types of honors unless you’ve got some good people around you,” Lindheim said. “Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to get back into a bowl again and of course, we hope the outcome will be different next time. I know one thing, we’ll give it our best shot.”

In addition to the individual awards, the SMC football team had 12 players named to both the offensive and defensive first and second teams.

Marcus Manley, Ret Tillman, and Austin Erhlich were named to the defensive first team. Ralph Gordon II, Reggie Mitchell, Dominique Vaughn, Brian Polio, Myles Johnson, and Jose Esquivel were named to the offensive first team. Ben Brown, Dominique Bierra, and Rico Wright were named to the offensive second team.