Massachusetts Maritime senior defensive standouts Victor Andrade and Zach Ryan join a group of 817 student-athletes across all divisions who have been named as members of the 2015 National Football Foundation's Hampshire Honor Society, which is comprised of college football players that have maintained a cumulative 3.2 grade point average or better throughout their collegiate career.

Andrade, a native of Yarmouth Port, Mass. and a graduate of Dennis-Yarmouth High School, has posted a 3.226 cumulative GPA as an International Maritime Business major at the Academy.  He earned first team all-Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference honors at outside linebacker, as he led the Buccaneers with 85 total tackles (64 solo), including a team-leading 16 for losses of 49 yards in 2014.  Andrade was the league’s Co-Defensive Player of the Week last September 20^th after making 10 total tackles and forcing a fumble in the second overtime of a 26-20 Admiral’s Cup victory over rival Maine Maritime, and during the year he recorded a pair of forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and four pass break-ups.

Ryan, a native of Danvers, Mass. and a graduate of Danvers High School, has also shined in the classroom at Massachusetts Maritime, posting a 3.237 cumulative GPA while majoring in Facilities Engineering.  Ryan served as one of the Buccaneers’ co-captains last fall and amassed 30 total tackles (23 solo) from his defensive line position, including five sacks for losses of 25 yards, as he earned all-New England Football Conference Bogan Division honors as a sophomore and finished with 120 career stops.

“Victor and Zach are two of the hardest working players in our program, and I couldn’t be more pleased for them to receive this outstanding recognition from the National Football Foundation,” Massachusetts Maritime Head Coach Jeremy Cameron said.  “Our program is dedicated to excellence in competition, in the classroom, in the Regiment and in the community, and they both certainly earned and deserve this great achievement.”

Massachusetts Maritime has now had four players welcomed into the National Football Foundation’s Hampshire Honor Society in the last two years, as former Buccaneer standouts Brandon Rodrigues ’14 and John Moriarty ’14 earned the accolade last spring.  Rodrigues is the only two-time Capital One Academic All-America honoree in school history, while Moriarty also earned a spot on the 2013 Capital One Academic All-America squad and was a semifinalist of the NFF’s prestigious William V. Campbell Trophy, widely considered as the “Academic Heisman”, during his senior campaign.

The National Football Foundation’s Hampshire Honor Society capitalizes on the NFF's current National Scholar-Athlete program greatly expanding the number of scholar-athletes the NFF can recognize each year.  The program further strengthens the organization's leadership role in encouraging academic performance by the student-athletes who play football at the 722 college and universities with football programs nationwide. The initiative has honored 5,744 student-athletes since its inception, and the program has experienced growth every year in either members or school participation since its launch in 2007.

Jon F. Hanson, the chairman and founder of The Hampshire Companies, provided the endowment to launch the NFF Hampshire Honor Society in 2007. He made the contribution as part of his legacy to the organization after serving as NFF chairman from 1994-2006. He currently serves the organization as a chairman emeritus. Each player awarded with membership in this year's Honor Society will receive a certificate commemorating their achievement.

"We have honored nearly 6,000 student-athletes in the last nine years thanks to Jon Hanson's generosity," said National Football Foundation Chairman Archie Manning, "We are grateful for his passionate belief in the scholar-athlete ideal, and the Hampshire Honor Society allows us to showcase the names of tomorrow's leaders while inspiring future generations to follow in their footsteps."