July 18, 2012
2012 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® Release
Bronx, N.Y. -
Fordham University senior defensive back Brendan Melanophy (Danbury, Conn./Danbury) was named to the 2012 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® it was announced this week. He will now be considered for a place on the eleven-man 2012 NCAA FCS Good Works Team® to be announced in September.
Since 1992, the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® has shown a spotlight on the countless "good works" and remarkable stories of service by student-athletes at all levels of college football competition. Award recipients represent the sport's finest in terms of character and leadership in the community.
"This year's Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® nominees have some of the most impressive community service resumes in the program's 21-year history," said Kathy Mabe, president of Allstate's West regions and a member of the 2012 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team voting panel. "These young men continue to raise the bar for the impact that student-athletes can have on others, and are an inspiration to Allstate, our agents and our employees."
From the nominees submitted by sports information directors across the nation on behalf of their schools, a special voting panel consisting of former Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® members and prominent college football media members will select two 11-player Good Works Teams® - one comprised of players from the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and another representing players from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, Divisions II, III, and the NAIA. The final roster of 22 award recipients will be unveiled in September.
Melanophy, a starter at safety for the past two years, was fifth on the 2011 squad with 53 total tackles, including 35 solo, and he had one tackle for loss along with two pass deflections, one quarterback hurry and one forced fumble. He started every game last fall and tied for 28th in the Patriot League in tackles per game.
Over his career, Melanophy has made 125 total tackles, 88 solo, in 32 games, with one interception and five pass deflections.
Off the field, Melanophy serves as the vice president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) and through the organization, he has volunteered with numerous projects, including serving as a host of multiple ping pong tournament fund raisers to sponsor Harlem RBI.
Melanophy also started and organized "Reps for Kids" through the Fordham SAAC last April, a charity event among all Fordham student-athletes to benefit the "Street Children International" charity. Each participating student-athlete was asked to go out and collect pledges for each repetition they performed on the Bench Press with almost $5,000 raised in the first of what should become an annual event.
The senior has also volunteered his time to read to children at Ambulatory Care facility across from St. Barnabas and at the Community Classroom at Hunts Point in the South Bronx for Dr. Seuss' birthday.
Along with other members of the football squad and members of the Fordham Campus Ministry, Melanophy helped to create a Prayer Garden at St. Martin of Tours in the Bronx, clearing brush and planting flowers at a parish in the Fordham neighborhood.
For all of his community service projects, Melanophy received the Kiwanis Community Service Award at the 2012 Block F Dinner in May.
