GLOUCESTER, Mass. – The American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) has released its fifth annual "Krampade All American Scholar" listings for the 2020-21 season. The Trine University men's hockey team finished with 16 student-athletes taking home the award.
Senior Corey Robertson (South Lyon, Mich.) finishes his career with a fourth straight season as an All American Scholar. Three other Thunder make their third appearance on the list including seniors Blake Robertson (South Lyon, Mich.), Aaron Brickman (St. Louis, Mo.) and Ben Lau (Prospect, Ky.).
Senior Max DiCicco (Howell, Mich.) and sophomore Brett Tierney (West Chicago, Ill.) both earned the honor for the second time in their career.
Rounding out the slate of honorees for the Thunder are ten first-time recipients, indcluding seven freshmen, two sophomores and a junior. First year players included Jacob Berg (Plano, Texas), Beau Binnie (Stouffville, Ontario), Jared Bowman (Calgary, Alberta), Shane Brancato (Lake Villa, Ill.), Thaddeus Marcola (Almont, Mich.), Elias Sandholm (Stockholm, Sweden) and Bryan Vandelinder joined sophmores Justin Meers (St. Charles, Mo.) and Brendan Prappas (West Bloomfield, Mich.) along with junior Hunter Payment (Monroe, Mich.).
Due to the effects of Covid-19, the AHCA adopted revised criteria for this year's honorees. To qualify, a student-athlete must have attained a 3.6 GPA for each semester, regardless of whether the school's hockey team was able to play this season or not. The names of 721 Division II-III men are being released today - their Division II-III women counterparts will be announced in the coming weeks.
"We made a decision to include all hockey players who met the academic standard, whether their team was allowed to play or not," said AHCA executive director Joe Bertagna. "Those who were denied a chance to compete have already been disadvantaged and we did not want to add to their situation."
Normally, a student-athlete is required to participate in a minimum of 40% of a team's games. The honor is open to any program who is a member of the AHCA.