ST. LOUIS — QB Mark Gronowski of South Dakota State has been named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Newcomer of the Year and the league's Freshman of the Year.  He heads a list of 22 student-athletes named to the 2020-21 Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Newcomer Team.  League coaches, sports information directors and a media panel selected the team.

MVFC All-Newcomer Team (Click Here)

Of the 22 selections, 11 players are freshmen.  Nine of the 10 MVFC teams competing this spring had at least one honoree.  Five different league schools (Missouri State, North Dakota, UNI, South Dakota State and Youngstown State) had three newcomers on the list.

A native of Naperville, Ill., Gronowski helped lead the Jackrabbits to a share of the MVFC title and the league's automatic bid to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. He racked up an average of 239 yards of total offense per game in six starts. He completed 76-of-133 passes (57.1 percent) for 1,051 yards and eight touchdowns, while ranking second on the squad with 383 rushing yards and a team-best six touchdowns on the ground. Gronowski topped the 100-yard mark for rushing three times.

Gronowski is the fifth SDSU player to be honored as Freshman of the Year, following Austin Sumner (2011), Jake Wieneke (2014), Christian Rozeboom (2016) and Pierre Strong, Jr. (2018), and is the first Jackrabbit tabbed as Newcomer of the Year.

OFFENSE
WR Bo Belquist, North Dakota
RB Pha'Leak Brown, Illinois State
QB Carson Camp, South Dakota
WR Dallas Daniels, Western Illinois
RB Isaiah Davis, South Dakota State 
TE Kyle Fourtenbary, Northern Iowa 
QB Mark Gronowski, South Dakota State 
WR Quan Hampton, Northern Iowa 
RB Celdon Manning, Missouri State 
RB Jaleel McLaughlin, Youngstown State 
QB Tommy Schuster, North Dakota 

DEFENSE
LB Adam Bock, South Dakota State 
DB Montrae Braswell, Missouri State 
LB Grant Dixon, Youngstown State 
CB Myles Harden, South Dakota 
LB Devon Krzanowski, North Dakota 
DB Michael Lawson, Western Illinois 
CB Keyon Martin, Youngstown State 
DB Kyriq McDonald, Missouri State 
DT Eli Mostaert, North Dakota State 
DB Benny Sapp III, Northern Iowa 
DE Brayden Thomas, North Dakota State