Sommerstad latest Toms' Good Works honoree

September 12, 2007

For the 10th year in a row, the St. Thomas football team had a player honored on the 22-man Good Works Team selected by the American Football Coaches' Association (AFCA). Senior Pat Sommerstad (Apple Valley/Eastview HS) was one of three Division III players recognized on the honor team, which salutes exceptional campus and community service.

St. Thomas has had a Good Works honoree all 10 years that the program has included non-Division I players. The 10 in a row is the longest streak in college football.

Sommerstad is starting for the third season in a row. A Finance/Economics major with a 3.82 gpa, Sommerstad is also a team co-captain and two-time Academic All-MIAC honoree. He has six career interceptions (one for a touchdown) and two fumble recoveries to go with 94 tackles. He's a 2004 graduate of Eastview High, where he was honor student, Academic All-State in three sports; all-state and all-conference in football and played in Minnesota HS all-star game; a three-time letter winner and all-conference in basketball; and all-conference and two-time letter winner in baseball.

Here are some of Sommerstad's campus and community volunteer projects: 

• Huntington’s Disease Society of America Hoop-A-Thon (4 years)
• St. Jude’s Up-Til Dawn (2 years)
• Tutor mentor fall 2007 at a local elementary school
• UST Faculty/Staff Children Christmas party (2 Years)
• Volunteer Mentor at St. John Neumann Church in Eagan (4 years)
• Volunteered in St John Neumann Nursery (2 years)
• Broadcaster for CMTV Ch. 15 in Mounds View, 1 year
• National Society of Collegiate Scholars Park Clean Up (2 years)
• Ronald McDonald House

• Cinco de Mayo volunteer, West St. Paul

• UST Financial Management Association (FMA)

• Knights of Columbus member and program chair (3 years)
  • Rosary at planned parenthood (Fridays)
  • Can food drive (October)
  • Coat drive (December)
  • Fundraiser at Saint Mark’s Church
  • Pancake breakfast (fall and spring)
  • Breakfast burrito’s for local charities and shelters
  • Mississippi River Clean Up
  • Worked at food shelves at local shelters

  • Financial Management Association (FMA)

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His brother Paul was Tommie football starter 2001-04 and received the Good Works award in 2004. Other Tommie Good Works honorees were Mark Warder (1998), Greg Kaiser (1999), Mike Westland (2000), Brian Brenberg (2001), Andrew Hilliard (2002), John Kaiser (2003), Ben Kessler (2005) and P.J. Theisen (2006).

Click here to read AFCA news release:

http://www.afca.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9300&ATCLID=1212577