The Pleasant Valley football team played a very hard schedule this past season, but that didn’t stop Max Slavens and Nathan Hamilton from having a stand out season. Both players were named district players of the year.
Slavens was offensive player of the year and Hamilton was kicker of the year. PV is one of six teams in the 4A District 4. Their district consists of Davenport North, Iowa City High, Iowa City West, Linn-Mar, and Muscatine.
Rusty VanWetzinga, the varsity football coach, said, “To be honest it’s always special to see members of your program get honored for their hard work and performance. Obviously Max and Nathan deserve the awards they received for their outstanding performance in our district, however they both realize that those honors received would not be possible without the hard work put forth by their teammates.”
The Spartan players got to be the all-district players of the year because of their outstanding numbers they put up this season.
Slavens was the Spartans’ quarterback for the past two seasons. This year he had 1,194 passing yards and ran for 943 yards. Slavens also helped the Spartans to 25 touchdowns. Hamilton was 34 of 37 on point-after kicks and had 28 touchbacks among his 49 kickoffs.
“It felt good to know that I was the best kicker in our district after all the work I put in to the season,” stated Hamilton. “I plan on going to a college such as Iowa or Northern Iowa to kick so having a good senior season will help with that.”
Slavens and Hamilton were given the highest honor in their district. However, there were many other players on PV’s football team that were named to the 1st team all district roster. Those players included Slavens, Hamilton, Max O’brien, Brennan Sarver, Ben Royer, Peyton Lindmark, and Evan Kilstrom.
“I think anytime our football program (or any PV athletic program) gets recognized for something positive I feel very good about the accomplishment. I feel honored to be associated with a terrific coaching staff, players, and school community that have all contributed to establish Pleasant Valley as one of the state’s best,” explained VanWetzinga.
