Nashville, Tennessee – University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football coach Pete Fredenburg has been named the American Football Coaches Association NCAA Division III National Coach of The Year. The award was announced at the AFCA Convention in Nashville on Tuesday morning.
Fredenburg guided the Cru to its first NCAA Division III National Championship this season as UMHB topped Wisconsin-Oshkosh 10-7 in the 2016 Stagg Bowl. The Cru finished 15-0 and set new school and American Southwest Conference records for wins in a season. Fredenburg is now 196-38 in 19 seasons as the only head coach in the history of the UMHB football program. He has directed the Cru to at least a share of 14 ASC titles and UMHB has advanced to the NCAA Division III National Championships 15 times in 19 years. Fredenburg is a nine-time AFCA Regional Coach of the Year and a nine-time ASC Coach of the Year. This is the first AFCA National Coach of the Year honor for Fredenburg, who won Liberty Mutual Division III National Coach of the Year honors following the 2013 season.
"I am very honored and humbled to win this award and it has been a special year for me," Fredenburg said. "This award may have my name on it, but it is really a credit to the hard work of all of our players, coaches and staff and I share this honor with all of them. It also means a great deal to be recognized by my coaching peers because they know how difficult it is to win a championship. I am just so proud for our program to be recognized with this honor today."
Adam Dorrel of Northwest Missouri State won NCAA Division II honors and Kevin Donley of Saint Francis (Ind.) was voted NAIA Coach of the Year. All of the AFCA Coach of the Year winners will again be honored during the inaugural American Football Coaches Award show. That show will be televised live tonight (January 10th) at 8:00 PM Central Time on CBS Sports Network. The AFCA Coach of the Year winners are selected by a vote of the AFCA members from the Regional Coach of the Year winners. Fredenburg was joined as a Division III Regional Coach of the Year by Jim Margraff of Johns Hopkins University, Bob Rankl of Alfred University, Tyler Staker of Coe College and Jeff Thorne of North Central College.