PERKINSTON — Andrew Zielinski helped lead perhaps the most dominant team in Mississippi Gulf Coast history, and that plus his outstanding work in the classroom have earned him prestigious Academic All-American of the Year from the College Sports Communicators.
It’s the second year in a row and third time since 2020 that Mississippi Gulf Coast has had the top honoree on the prestigious Academic All-American team. All three have been from the Bulldogs golf team. Chase Kaiser won last year, with Jon Hopkins picking up the award in 2020.
Joining Zielinski on the 20-person Academic All-American Team in Men’s At-Large Team of the College Division were teammate Will Burnham and football’s Joe Bradford and Gabriel Showalter. All four Bulldogs were named to the First Team.
They joined Jett Harrell and Simaru Fields, who were named to the Women’s At-Large team on Tuesday. Gulf Coast led all schools with six winners, and the school has 14 since community college student-athletes were first eligible in 2019.
The College Division includes all community colleges, Canadian colleges and American four-year schools not associated with the NCAA or NAIA.
ANDREW ZIELINSKI
The sophomore from Ocean Springs finished with a 3.92 GPA in nursing. He helped the Bulldogs win the 2024 NJCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championship, and team won their last 12 tournaments of the year.
“This award means a lot to me because it recognizes that I did well in the classroom and also in my athletics,” Zielinski said. “It makes me feel confident about my skills and that I can compete at a higher level.”
He won the Gulf Coast Invitational and had five top-five finishes. The second-ranked golfer NJCAA Division II by Clippd, he was an NJCAA and PING All-American. He finished with a 72.57 stroke average, ninth-best in school history.
Zielinski, who will continue his collegiate career at NCAA Division II Lee University, put first things first to put together his stellar academic and playing resume.
“I would dedicate time to practice and then also dedicate time to doing work,” he said. “I would always make sure I’d have my work done and make sure I understood everything before I did any type of leisure activity.”
JOE BRADFORD
The center from Pass Christian finished with a 4.0 GPA in business administration. He was one of nine people on the team with perfect GPAs.
“It’s nice to see your hard work on the field honored,” Bradford said. “Doing the schoolwork while playing football isn’t the easiest thing to do all the time. Everybody who does it, knows that, especially when you’re in the middle of the season. When you have a big project come up, you have to find a way to knock it all out. To be able to excel at the academic level while also being pretty decent at football is nice to be recognized for.”
Bradford anchored an offensive line that ranked third in the NJCAA in scoring (38.4 ppg), third in rushing (235.6 ypg), fourth in rush TD (26), fifth in total offense (445.8 ypg) and eighth in TD passes (22).
Bradford earned a spot on the All-MACCC Second Team as a sophomore. He will continue his collegiate career at NCAA Division I Nicholls State.
“The biggest thing is cutting out time for it after football,” he said. “You go dinner and leave a good two- to three-hour slot to go to the LRC and knock out some homework. I’d go sit in the corner, put some music in and get as much work as I could every day.”
WILL BURNHAM
The sophomore from Jackson graduated with a 3.84 GPA in management. He was the No. 1 ranked golfer in the country by Clippd and won one event, finishing with four medalists in two years. He had 11 straight top-five finishes in helping lead the Bulldogs to the national championship.
“Student comes first in student-athlete,” Burnham said. “A lot of people come to college thinking they can just get by in school and don’t take the academic part into account. I think they both need to go hand in hand. You should be as good a student as you can to help the team GPA, and that sets your team up for success. It’s a huge honor. Going into business when I get done, this will be great to tell people, showing I can balance the best of both worlds.”
Burnham won the Hubert Tucker Award given to MACCC top performer and was an NJCAA and PING First Team All-American. As a freshman, he won the Phil Mickelson Award given to the top freshman in the country. He is going to continue his collegiate career at NCAA Division I Southern Miss.
“Learning to live by yourself at college is difficult at first, but you really have time for everything,” he said. “You have to work hard and work smart and not mess around. If you spend your time on the golf course and your time in the LRC completely locked it, it’s better than sitting around.”
GABRIEL SHOWALTER
The sophomore kicker/punter from St. Martin finished with a 3.90 GPA in pre-physical therapy. He was perfect on all 48 point-after attempts as a sophomore, finishing 50-of-51 for his career. He was an NJCAA All-American for the second team, earning a spot on the First Team this year.
“I’m privileged because it’s not easy to have good grades,” Showalter said. “You have to study and keep up with your homework. It’s like on the football field, you also have to find time to become good at what you do. It’s an honor to be picked for an award like this.”
Showalter made 9-of-13 field-goal attempts this year, finishing 17-of-23 at Gulf Coast. He also averaged 38.2 yards on 37 punts.
“You have to make sure you have your homework done and study for your tests,” he said. “You go out the football field and practice and play. It’s just making sure you manage your workload.”
For more information on MGCCC’s 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
This post originally posted at https://www.mgcccbulldogs.com/landing/index by MGCCC Athletics
