Football banquet honors players

Mumford Stadium Baton Rouge is where the G-Men football team stepped foot on the field for the last time. The game resulted in a 31-17 lopsided victory for the Tigers. Though the game against The Southern Tigers marked the last victory for the G-Men, success did not stop there.Fifteen members of the Grambling State's football team were recognized for their phenomenal play.

The student athletes received tokens of success at the 2010 Tiger Football Banquet held in the in the Grambling State University Favrot Student Union on Feb. 15.

"The guys were very happy about receiving awards," said Linebacker Coach Andre Robinson. "Here at Grambling, we always have pretty good players, but these young men worked extremely hard considering the adversity the had to go through this year.

Theses guys hung together, and helped us get to a 9-2 record, which was pretty good."

The team was more than pretty good. The Tigers were 8-1 in the conference standings and finished their season nationally ranked 23rd in the FCS standings.

It is no secret that Grambling's all-time leading rusher, SWAC offensive player of the year, future professional Frank Warren was the headline of the ceremony.

Warren's tremendous season earned him SWAC honors and Louisiana Sports writers' Association Honors.

He is a Russell Athletic HBCU bowl Participant, was named first team Sheridan Broadcasting network, Boxtorow.com/BASN first All-American received the Boxtorow .com/BASN offensive player of the year won the Eddie Robinson MVP award and was a 100 percent Club Honoree.

"Frank is a very hard worker that's is the biggest reason why he is successful," said Coach Robinson. "He practices the same way he plays.

"He runs hard every day. He works during the off season and he ended up being Grambling's all-time leading rusher and that's due to his work ethic."

Along with Warren, other Sheridan Broadcasting Network All-Americans included Cliff Exama and Kiare Thompson.

Boxtorow.com/BASN All-Americans included Cliff Exama, Bennie Peoples and Sanford Banks.

All SWAC honors first team included Frank Warren, Bennie Peoples, Cliff Exama, Kiare Thompson and the second team honors included Antonio Leonard and Zoltan Riazzo.

Louisiana Sports Writers' Association Honorees were Frank Warren and Sanford Banks. Cliff Exama and Antonio Leonardo were honorable mentions of the Louisiana Sports Writers' Association.

Russell Athletic HBCU Bowl Participants included Frank Warren, Derrick Wilhite, Kiare Thompson and Larry Donnell.

Recipients of 2010 Grambling football awards included: Bennie Peoples, Most Improved; Frank Warren, Best Running Back and Eddie Robinson (MVP); Kiare Thompson, Wide Receiver Award; Sanford Banks, Offensive Line Award; Antonio Leonardo, Defensive Line Award; Cliff Exama, Linebacker Award; Derrick Wilhite, Defensive back Award; Zoltan Riazzo, Special Team Awards; Anthony Carrothers, Newcomer Award; Ryan Allen, John gee Award; Antonio Leonard, Ironman Award; Van Phillips, Academic Award; Kendall Robinson, Robert Piper Award; and Cornelius Walker for the Perseverance Award.

Twenty-four of the 99 student athletes received Academic Honors.