Freed Earns Third Straight Selection to ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First Team

EAST STROUDSBURG – East Stroudsburg University redshirt senior outside linebacker Matt Freed has been named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District first team for the third straight season, it was announced Thursday.

Freed (Souderton/Souderton) is a returning first team Academic All-American and can become the first two-time Academic All-America selection in ESU football history when the national teams are announced on Tuesday, November 23.

A History major with a 3.74 grade-point average, Freed has attained nearly every major academic and athletic award in his career at ESU. He was a recipient of the PSAC Fall Top 10 Award recognizing five men’s and women’s fall sport student-athletes last year and was named as a semifinalist for the William F. Campbell Award from the National Football Foundation last month.

On the field, Freed ranks third in school history with 373 career tackles and has compiled 43.5 tackles for a loss, 21 sacks and five interceptions in three years as a starter. He led the PSAC in tackles (132), tackles for a loss (18) and sacks (10) on the Warriors’ NCAA Playoff team last season and can become the third player in school history with three straight 100-tackle seasons when ESU hosts Shippensburg on Senior Day on Saturday.

He is a two-time All-America selection by  the voters of both the Daktronics Division II (sports information directors) and AP Little All-America programs, and can become the first three-time AP Little All-American in school history. He was the Daktronics Super Region 1 Defensive Player of the Year last season and is a five-time PSAC East Defensive Player of the Week.

Freed is second in the PSAC and tied for 12th in Division II in tackles per game (94 total, 10.4 per game) this season and leads the conference and is seventh nationally in solo tackles per game (55, 6.1 per game). He had a season-high 17 tackles and a sack at Bloomsburg, 11 tackles and a career-high three sacks vs. Kutztown, and was the PSAC East Defensive Player of the Week with 11 tackles, 2 sacks, an interception and a forced fumble at Millersville.

He is one of four ESU student-athletes to earn three Academic All-District honors – the maximum allowed per student-athlete with the program requiring both sophomore academic and athletic eligibility for consideration. Three student-athletes have achieved that distinction this season – Freed, Danny Drago (men’s soccer) and Kailyn Buckley (women’s soccer). Katie Horst (field hockey) was a three-time selection to the Women’s At-Large team in the 1997-99 academic years.

The Academic All-District teams are voted on by members of CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America). The college division of District II covers all Division II and III institutions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia.

ESU has placed 10 student-athletes on their respective Academic All-District teams in each of the last three seasons and led the PSAC in 2007-08 and 2008-09. The PSAC landed 13 of the 52 selections on the women’s soccer teams this season.