Sims named pre-season all-America
Senior wide receiver only Wildcat named to team
ABILENE -- ACU senior wide receiver/kickoff returner DaRay Sims is one of 100 players who have been named to the 2003 NCAA Division II Pre-Season all-America team by Don Hansen's Football Gazette.
A total of 100 players -- 50 on offense and 50 on defense -- representing all four geographic regions of NCAA Division II were named to the team. Seven schools have three selections to the team, including Division II runner-up Valdosta State (Ga.). A total of 66 schools have representation on the squad.
Sims -- named to the all-America team as one of five kick-return specialists -- enjoyed a fine junior season in 2002 after transferring to ACU from Navarro Junior College. He led the Wildcats in catches with 27 for 447 yards and two scores. But it was his kick-return abilities that garnered him the most attention.
The first time he touched the ball as a Wildcat (Sept. 7 season-opener against Central Arkansas) he took a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, the seventh-longest kickoff return for a touchdown in school history. He finished second in the nation in kicoff return average at 34.7 yards per kickoff return.
He earned second team all-Lone Star Conference South Division honors as a wide receiver, but was named first team NCAA all-West region by CoSIDA and by Don Hansen's Football Gazette before earning all-America honors from the magazine.
Sims and the rest of the Wildcats are coming off a 6-4 season in 2002 and are picked to finish third in the LSC South Division in 2003. ACU, ranked No. 24 in the nation by Street and Smith's magazine, will open the season on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. when it takes on Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark.
