Kapa‘a’s Brennan Carvalho picked up the biggest honor so far in his young football career. The Sports Network gave the Portland State University junior the distinction of top returning offensive guard in the country for NCAA Division I-AA. “I was
Kapa‘a’s Brennan Carvalho picked up the biggest honor so far in his young football career.
The Sports Network gave the Portland State University junior the distinction of top returning offensive guard in the country for NCAA Division I-AA.
“I was really excited when I found out about it,” Carvalho said. “People will start to target me — that’s really the only difference.”
The Sports Network’s preseason positional rankings named Carvalho as a top performer because of his two highly successful seasons as a Viking.
Carvalho has been a starter for the past two campaigns and was a first-team All-Big Sky Conference selection in 2005.
The 19-year-old earned third-team All-America honors by Don Hansen’s Football Gazette last year.
“I kept doing good and we led the league in rushing,” Carvalho said. “Coaches kept putting me out there and we had an All-American running back.”
The Viking offensive line paced the Big Sky Conference’s leading rushing game and allowed the fewest sacks over the past two campaigns.
The 6-foot-1, 310-pound Kamehameha Schools graduate blocked for first-team All-America running back Joe Rubin, who rushed for 1,702 yards last season.
The Vikings, who open the 2006 season on Sept. 2 at New Mexico, have the toughest non-conference schedule in the nation in 2006, according to the Sports Network.
In addition to playing the Lobos, PSU travels to consensus top 10 California on Sept. 16 and nationally ranked Oregon on Oct. 28.
It marks the first time in school history PSU has played three NCAA Division I-A opponents in a single season.
“I’m really excited,” Carvalho said. “I’ve always wanted to play those teams. It will help me a lot as far as playing football at the next level.”
Considering the Vikings play in the second highest rated NCAA Division I-AA conference in the country, and will be playing three I-A opponents, PSU may have the toughest overall schedule in the country.
The Sports Network (www.sportsnetwork.com) is the sponsor of all I-AA football postseason awards and honors, including the Walter Payton Award, Buck Buchanan Award and Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award.
Carvalho heads to the Education First Football Camp on O‘ahu on Sunday.
“I’m going to be one of the counselors and mentor individuals wanting to go to college,” the social science major said.
The event is being held at the Brigham Young University of Hawai‘i campus.
Kapa‘a’s Moses Punzal, an offensive lineman, is also on the 2006-07 roster for the Vikings.
The 6-foot-3, 305-pound Kapa‘a High School graduate redshirted last season.
Makana Maldonado, another Kapa‘a native, who graduated from St. Louis School, has transferred to Portland State from Western Montana.
Like Carvalho and Punzal, Maldonado is slated as an offensive lineman.
Brennan’s younger brother Bronson is an offensive lineman at Alcorn State University in Mississippi.
• Duane Shimogawa Jr., sports editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or kauaisports@kauaipubco.com.
