Sumner native Chris Thomas, a senior offensive tackle at Eastern Washington University, has been named one of 106 nominees nationwide for the Allstate/American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team.
The honor embodies the true spirit of teamwork and “giving back” through selfless contributions and commendable acts of kindness. During the 2009 season, a voting panel will select two 11-player teams — one composed of players from the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and a combined team representing players from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, Divisions II, III and the NAIA.
Thomas is a 2005 graduate of Sumner High School and is a biology/pre-med major with a 3.78 grade point average. He hopes to become a doctor, either as an orthopedic surgeon, anesthesiologist or primary care physician.
Highly-honored already for his academic success, last spring Thomas was presented with the Eastern Athletics Student-Athlete Advisory Council “Triple-Threat Citizen” award at the first-annual Eastern Athletics EeeWoos award show. Besides being honored for his athletics and academic success, the award recognized him for his community service that included multiple blood drives he organized and volunteer work at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane.
“Chris is an amazing student-athlete with how he goes above and beyond,” Eagle head coach Beau Baldwin said. “He is a high achiever in the classroom and is a leader on the field and in the weight room, but he also organizes blood drives and other community service projects. He not only is a part of it, but he’ll run it — he’ll get the groups together, make telephone calls and organize it. He keeps busy and is the epitome of what you would consider a true student-athlete. He’s a great representative of our program and I’ve been extremely pleased with everything he’s done.”
An honorable mention all-Big Sky tackle last year and a preseason all-league pick this season, the 6-foot-5, 300-pound Thomas enters his senior season with 18 career starts for the Eagles. He helped block for an Eagle offense that finished 2008 with the seventh-best passing offense in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (299.9 yards per game) and was also 24th in total offense (398.5).
“He’s our most veteran offensive lineman coming back,” Baldwin added. “He’s definitely a leader of that group and the other players know that. He’s going to be huge — he was a great player last year and I’m expecting even greater things out of him this year.”
