Honoring WPI's nationally ranked football players

A Division III engineering school rarely holds championship titles. It hardly ever even has distinguished athletic facilities, and almost never does it have nationally ranked athletes. This year is an exception - the football team has three very distinguishable players: Junior FB Eric Thiboutot (Nashua,NH), Senior DB Jeff Martin (Fairhaven,MA) and Senior RB Nick Fluet (Leominster,MA). These three names have been synonymous with WPI football over the past few years, and their efforts have paid off.

These outstanding athletes have been named on the National Statistics for Division III College Football. Eric Thiboutot (#34) is ranked 20th in the Nation for punt returns. He has returned 27 for 357 yards and averaged 13.2 yards. He is also ranked at number 20 for all-purpose running; with 589 yards rushing, 55 yards receiving, 357 yards in punt returns, 354 yards in kick returns, which totals 1355 yards and averages 169.38 yards per game. Thiboutot was also rewarded Special Teams Player of the Week last week for his performance in the Homecoming day game. He had the 85-yard winning touchdown during the game, and 159 yards total. As a junior Thiboutot has definitely left his mark in a short time. Currently, he leads the team in kickoff returns, all-purpose running, and punt returns. We are looking forward to his performance this Saturday at Plymouth State and next year in his final season.

The two seniors that are ranked Nationally also deserve serious recognition for their outstanding athleticism and achievements over the past four seasons. Beginning with Co-Captain Jeff Martin (#25): he was ranked 7th in the Nation for defensive tackles with 115 as of last week. Martin leads the team with the most number of intercepted returns, and in defensive stats. His defensive statistics are very impressive, with an average of 12.8 total tackles per game and 0.3 average interceptions per game. Last week Martin was given the honor of Defensive Player of the Week. At the Homecoming day victory game Jeff had 20 tackles total, 4 of which were unassisted. If you were to describe Jeff Martin as a person, the first thing that comes to mind is an all around good guy. He has heart, integrity, commitment, and intelligence. It is an honor and a privilege to have had him as a player and an athlete at WPI. Thanks Jeff and good luck in your future.

Finally, our senior running back, Nick Fluet (#6), who was ranked Nationally and performed amazingly all season long. Fluet was ranking 19th in the Nation for rushing yards with a total of 876 as of last game. If Fluet rushes at least 124 yards this Saturday at Plymouth State he will become only the fifth 1000-yard rusher in WPI single-season history. He is third in the conference for rushing at 98.1 yards per game, and fourth in the league in all-purpose running with a total of 1152 yards. He leads his team in rushing, and total offensive scoring with 13 touchdowns. His total offensive stats include 139 plays, 876 yards, which gains him the average of 97.3 yards per game. Nick, like Jeff, is an athlete and a player that performs and plays with big heart. These guys are members of a small team, of a team that does not go national, and that is not even ranked, but when you watch them play, and when you talk about football with them, you know that no matter what they give it one hundred percent. Nick Fluet has been an important and influential Engineer football player since his freshman year. He will be greatly missed and we are proud to have watched him and cheered him on for the past four years. Good luck Fluet and thanks for everything.

Congratulations to all the fall sports this season, you all successfully completed your season with heart, pride and integrity, good luck next year.