Thus far, the league has had two champions, and in the first three seasons it has recognized eight individuals for their outstanding on-field performance — six regular season award winners and two bowl game’s finest players.
Still, with the league like most of European american football consisting of predominantly amateur players, playing remains a side thing for almost everybody in and around the game. It was then not much of a surprise that the league accepted a proposal from one of its own representatives, Gabriel Dielacher, during the meeting in Zagreb late last year, and established a new award, that would reward players for their achievements that include those away from the field.
“The Excellence Award recognizes and fosters outstanding player performance on and off the field and is a way to invest in the players’ future development”, said the CEFL Commissioner Igor Gajić.
Now, with the regular season over, the first two winners — one senior and one junior player — have been named: this year’s CEFL Defensive Player of the Year Ivan Nedeljković as the senior, and the Budapest Wolves’ 19-year old backup and occasional starting quarterback Mark Bencsics as the junior player.
They will split a fund of 2500 euros available for them to improve their education. In their team’s application, both said they intend to use it for a language course — Bencsics for a higher level English course, and Nedeljković for Japanese.
Nedeljković is a second year student and employee of Ultimate Gear, a store dealing with football gear in Belgrade. Along with being one of the best players the Vukovi have on their roster, he is also a coach of their under 13 team.
Bencsics, one of the Wolves’ biggest prospects, is in his first year of Physical Education University in Budapest, and similarly to Nedeljković, working with younger players withing the Wolves organization, from ages 14 to 18.
Instead of the head coaches’ votes that are counted for the Player of the Year award, team presidents vote for any two players proposed by all teams, except their own. Both won with relative ease — Nedeljković received six, and Bencsics five votes. They will receive their plaques after the CEFL Bowl.