Pride football sees eight earn All Heart North honors

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Just three days clear of their 2025 season finale on Saturday, the Clarke University football team learned of eight members of the Pride receiving nine honors within the 2025 Heart of America North Division All Conference selections announced by Heart officials on Tuesday afternoon.

The eight CU seelctions are highlighted by double honoree in junior Riley Hawkins who received a First Team designation as a kick returner while also earning an Honorable Mention nod as a wide reciever to be one of the seven first time All Heart North selections that included running back Caleb Perry, offensive linemen Joey Pagan and Ahmed Shamila, defensive lineman Marcus Plair, linebacker Jaden Warren, defensive back Jordan Summage, and rounding out the eight-player list is three-time All Heart linebacker Steele Fredricks.

Hawkins, a junior from Centerville, Iowa, finished with the third-most kickoff return yards in the division with 391 on 17 returns for a 23.0 yards per return average as he was one of only two players in the Heart North with a kick return touchdown when he took a kick 93 yards for a touchdown on Sept. 13 at home against MidAmerica Nazarene University that gave the Pride a 14-10 lead in the second quarter. 

As a receiver, Hawkins had a career-year catching passes improving from a 12-catch 2024 to average over four receptions per game in 2025 with 47 catches for a program record and fifth-highest mark in the division at 705 yards, producing over 64 yards per game with two touchdown catches, matching his 2024 total. Catching at least two passes in every game for no less than 32 yards in a game, Hawkins was a master of explosive plays (receptions of 20 yards or longer) as he converted 11 of his 47 receptions into explosives including three in his seven-reception, 199-yard performance at Missouri Valley College on Sept. 6 where he caught his career-long pass for a 77-yard touchdown against the Vikings as one of his three explosive plays in that game.

Perry, a junior from Bartlesville, Okla., received a Second Team selection after he produced arguably the best offensive season in Clarke football history in his first season after transferring from MidAmerica Nazarene to the tune of setting the program's single season rushing record with the first 1,000-yard season on the ground ever for a Pride running back, finishing with 1,019 yards in just 10 games played. One of only three rushers to eclipse 1,000 yards in the Heart North, Perry seemed to grow stronger as the season went on, with three of his four 100-yard rushing games coming in the final four gmeas of the season, going for 149 yards on Oct. 25 against William Penn, 112 on Nov. 1 at St. Ambrose, then for 181 on Nov. 8 in a CU victory at William Woods, where he also produced a career-high 232 all-purpose yards.

For those all-purpose yards, Perry had to be a pass catching threat out of the backfield, and he proved to be so making at least two catches in all but one game he was active for as he totaled at least 20 receiving yards five times with his career-highs in both catches and yards coming on Oct. 18 against Culver-Stockton where he had nine receptions for 56 yards for a 145 all-purpose yard game, one of his seven times exceeding over 100 all-puprose yards for 1,226 combined rushing, receiving, and kick return yards.

One, or two, of the reasons Perry could have such a productive season was the work of the Pride offensive line, led by senior All Heart North selections of the Second Team Pagan and Honorable Mention Shamila, as Clarke produced 127.7 rushing yards per game, the best mark in a season by a CU football team. Clarke's offensive line also allowed the fewest sacks in a single season in program history, as the Pride signal caller only got taken down on a pass play 20 times on the season, a less than two sacks per game average with Shamila sliding over from guard to take over starting center duties after four year starter Ricci Giambruno graduated in 2024 and Pagan settling into the left tackle position in his first season as the true starter outside.

Plair, a senior from Tampa, Fla., produced a Second Team season on the defensive line while playing the Dawg position in head coach Adam Hicks' defensive allignment to by far his best season in navy and gold over the last three seasons. Playing an edge role on that defensive front seven, Plair finished his best tackling season at 59 total take downs, 32 of which were solo and 27 being assisted, as he tied for the lead in the Heart North with a career-high 6.5 sacks while adding three more tackles for a loss for his career-high 9.5 TFLs to put him in seventh in the division. 

Producing at least one tackle for a loss in nine of his 11 games played in 2025, Plair produced a two-sack game on Nov. 8 at William Woods where he would also recover a fumble as the Pride would earn a 27-23 victory with his career-high tackles in a game came on Sept. 13 against MidAmerica Nazarene with 12 tackles include a sack-fumble play and a pass break up.

Warren, a senior from Saltillo, Miss., made the move from running back to linebacker for a Second Team All Heart North performance in his final season at CU to produce the most tackles in the Heart North in 2025 with his 90 stops that included 47 solo tackles and 43 assisted tackles. The former running back didn't show any sign of needing an adjustment period, as he opened the season with a game-high 13 tackles in the Pride's 2025 opener against Mount Marty, then followed it up the next week with a 14-tackle game, 13 credited solo tackles, on the road against Missouri Valley where he produced one of his 3.5 tackles for a loss on the year and even returned a pooch punt attempted that was tipped by a teammate to Warren to return it 60 yards for a score.

Summage, a senior from Montgomery, Ala., used his takeaway ability to earn Second Team All Heart North, setting career-highs in interceptions (4), forced fumbles (2), fumble recoveries (1), pass break ups (10), and tackles (52) for his best season by far, since coming to Clarke in 2021. Summage played a huge role in the Pride's two wins in 2025 where he picked off two passes and broke up another in CU's 37-30 win over Graceland on Sept. 27 then broke up a pass and had a forced fumble and his one fumble recovery on Nov. 8 in Clarke's 27-23 win at William Woods. The two other games where he recorded interceptions both came at home when he started the year with an interception, a pass break up, and a career-high nine tackles against Mount Marty on Aug. 30 then produced an interception and pass break up with six tackles on Oct. 18 against Culver-Stockton.

Fredricks, a senior from Arvada, Colo., earned his third-straight All Heart North Honorable Mention selection after his second-straight season of exactly 67 tackles, but with his best tackles per game average of 6.7 due to missing one of the 11 games this season due to injury. Fredricks produced a career-high 36 solo tackles, one forced fumble, and two pass break ups on the year with 5.5 tackles for a loss that included one sack with two of his last four games producing his career-high for tackels in a game with 10 on Oct. 25 against William Penn and against on Nov. 15 against Grand View. 

Full Heart Release: https://heart.prestosports.com/sports/fball/2025-26/releases/20251118hx0wqk

Clarke football finished the 2025 season with a 2-9 overall record, going 1-5 in the Heart North with Hawkins and Perry to highlight the returning crop of Pride players heading into the 2026 offseason.