Stephen Paea, right, is my OSU male sports athlete of the year
Football player Stephen Paea was my pick for the Oregon State male sports player of the year. He was a monster defensive tackle.
Paea was named a first-team SI and AP All-American, won the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year award picked by the coaches and won the Morris Trophy as the bests defensive linemen in the Pac-10, voted on by the offensive linemen.
Paea was also drafted in the second round by the Chicago Bears. He impressed scouts at the NFL combine by bench pressing 225 pounds a combine record 49 times.
All those honors are impressive. And it wasn’t his stats that jumped out at you. You had to look deeper at the game to see how he impacted every play with double teams and opponents making specific game plans to avoid him.
The Beavers have a big hole to fill now that he’s gone.
Here’s the OSU video on the fall sports highlights:
