Villa Park’s D’Amato Gets Big West Honor

Villa Park graduate Tony D’Amato was named Big West Conference defensive player of the year by the conference coaches Tuesday.

D’Amato, a senior linebacker at Utah State, led the conference with 170 tackles, including 23 for a loss, and was third in sacks with eight.

Irvine graduate Geoff Noisy, a senior wide receiver at Nevada, shared offensive player of the year honors with New Mexico State running back Denvis Manns and Idaho running back Joel Thomas. Noisy led the conference in four categories, including receptions per game (8.6) and yards per game (127.7), which were also third-best in the nation.

Players selected to the offensive first team included Nevada junior wide receiver Trevor Insley (San Clemente High) and Utah State sophomore kicker Brad Bohn (Laguna Beach High).