Team MVP, 2012 Captain Announced in Annual Football Team Dinner

In a memorable, record-book-rewriting year for Harvard football, singling out one player for MVP recognition must’ve been a tall task.

But the Crimson figured it out, naming senior defensive tackle Josue Ortiz the winner of the Frederick Greely Crocker Award, annually given to the top player on the team.

A host of other seniors, including defensive tackle Ben Graeff, quarterback Collier Winters, offensive tackle Kevin Murphy, and captain middle linebacker Alex Gedeon, received accolades at the football awards banquet.

But perhaps the evening’s greatest honor went to junior linebacker Bobby Schneider, who will succeed Gedeon as the captain of Harvard football as the program enters its 139th season.

Schneider, a native of Grapevine, Texas, tallied 40 tackles in 2011, fourth-best on the team. A presence on the defense since his sophomore year, Schneider had 40 tackles in 2010 as well.

The junior’s best game of this season came early in the year. Against Brown in the team’s second contest, the Dunster resident did it all, notching a sack, an interception, and seven tackles en route to an Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week nod.

With the announcement of first and second All-Ivy teams earlier this week, honors this week weren’t limited to the seniors and Schneider. On the offensive side, junior tight end Kyle Juszczyk and Murphy were named to the all-Ivy first team, while Ortiz, Gedeon, and Hanson received first-team defensive honors. Ortiz and Hanson made the team unanimously.

A host more Crimson players made the Ivy second team, including Winters, junior offensive lineman Jack Holuba, junior running back Treavor Scales, junior defensive tackle Nnamdi Obukwelu, and junior defensive back Brian Owusu.