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BAY CITY, Mich. — Ferris State Univeristy football player Jake Visser (Coopersville, Mich.), and Grand Valley State State University women’s soccer player Katy Tafler (Mississauga, Ontario/Cawthra Park) were named the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s (GLIAC) 2008-09 male and female “Scholar-Athletes of the Year,” respectively, as voted by the league’s faculty athletic representatives.

Visser has earned a 3.89 GPA (4.0 scale) while majoring in history education. He has been named to the GLIAC All-Academic football team four times and is a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team selection as selected by CoSIDA. He is a two-time recepient of the GLIAC Commissioners Award as well as one of 174 recipients to be awarded the NCAA postgraduate scholarship. Visser, a two-time (2007-08) Ferris State MVP, led the Bulldogs last season with 105 total tackles (56 solo), 16.0 tackles for loss (-71 yds.), and 7.5 sacks (-54 yds.). He was named the 2008 GLIAC McAvoy Award Winner, which is presented annually to the GLIAC football player who best combines outstanding character and leadership on the field, in the classroom, and in the community.

The two-time GLIAC “Defensive Lineman of the Year” attained all-conference honors for the fourth stratight year which includes first-team recognition for the third year in a row. Visser ranks third amonth the GLIAC leaders in tackles for loss (1.45 pg.), third in sacks (.68 pg.), and seventh in total tackles (9.5 tpg.).

Visser collected an impressive list of postseason accolades in 2008 by being tabbed as a First Team All-American by D2football.com, Don Hansen’s Football Gazette, Associated Press Little All-America, American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and Daktronics, making him a consensus first team All-America choice by every source covering Division II football. Visser competed in the annual NCAA Division II All-Star Game, the 2009 Valero Cactus Bowl, in January in Kingsville, Texas. He recently signed a free-agent contract with the Houston Texans.

Tafler, a biomedical science major, was recently honored with the prestigious NCAA Top VIII award. She has compiled a 3.91 GPA (4.0 scale) while leading the Lakers in goals and points during each of the last four seasons. She was named the ESPN The Magazine Academic “All-American of the Year” following a season in which she scored 20 goals and added 13 assists for 53 points.

She has garnered numerous awards during her illustrious career at Grand Valley State. She is a two-time Daktronics, Inc. Division II “Player of the Year” (2006, ’07) and has been a Daktronics, Inc. Midwest Region First Team honoree for the past three seasons. She has earned Daktronics, Inc. First Team All-American status in each of the last three years and was an National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Second Team All-American this year after being an NSCAA First Team All-American the previous two years. In both 2006 and 2007, Tafler was named to the NSCAA Division II Final Four All-Tournament team. Tafler is a two-time GLIAC Commissioners Award winner as well as one of 174 recipients to be awarded the NCAA postgraduate scholarship.

Tafler is the only GLIAC women’s soccer player to record at least 40 goals and 40 assists in her career, and is just the 17th player to do so in Division II history. In her career, she ranks third in Division II in goals with 114 and third in points with 269. Tafler’s point totals are both conference and school records as well. She has been a four-time All-GLIAC First-Team honoree and was chosen as the conference’s “Offensive Player of the Year” for the past three seasons. During her freshman year, she was selected as the GLIAC “Freshman of the Year.”