Tapped as this year’s Division III Defensive Pre-Season Player of the Year by Lindy’s magazine, Michael Sykes has emerged from the shadows after a freshman season that saw him record just 11 tackles in 2000. Among the other honors Sykes has received entering the 2004 campaign is a spot on the 2004 Don Hansen’s Football Gazette Pre-Season All-America First Team on defense as well as the Lindy’s Division III Defensive Squad.
Sykes, a 2003 Don Hansen’s Football Gazette First Team All-American on defense, finished his junior season as the Division III national sack leader with 16 sacks, while ranking second with 1.6 sacks per game. The NJAC’s sack leader, he was also ranked 18th in Division III in the final statistics release with 2.1 tackles for a loss in 2003 as well after leading the team with his 21 hits for a loss.
As a collegiate newcomer in 2000, he earned a letter for the Lions as a linebacker with his 11 tackles. He returned in 2001 ready to step up his level of play, only to miss the entire campaign with an injury.
Sykes returned to the lineup in 2002 and emerged as a force on the defense for the Lions with his team-best 18 tackles for a loss (-85 yards). He added nine sacks (-61 yards) and finished the season with 37 tackles and is the second leading returning player this fall. Ranked No. 3 in the NJAC in 2002 in tackles for a loss, Sykes averaged 2.0 per game and also finished ranked fourth in the conference in sacks per game with his 1.0 per game average. By year’s end he had also been named to the NSCA All-America Team for his accomplishments in the weight room and the classroom becoming TCNJ’s third NSCA Strength All-American.
After finishing 2002 with a strong effort, Sykes elevated his level of play to an even higher level, earning both regional and national recognition in the process. In the 2003 regular-season finale, the Lions posted a 29-0 victory over Kean. Sykes was named the NJAC’s Defensive Player of the Week, while also earning a selection as the Eastern College Athletic Conference Southeast Defensive Player of the Week and the Don Hansen’s Football Gazette Division III National Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Against Kean, he registered 12 total tackles, including six solo stops in a game in which TCNJ held the Kean offense to –37 net yards. He also notched a career-high effort with three sacks to make him at the time, the NCAA Division III national sack leader with (15.5) through nine games for an average of 1.72 per game. He also forced a fumble in the victory.
He would finish the 2003 season collecting a spot on the NJAC All-Star Second Team on defense, while also earning a selection to the 2003 Don Hansen’s Football Gazette All-East First Team.
Elected team tri-captain for the 2004 campaign, he brings some pretty impressive numbers into the fall having played in just 24 games as a Lion. He has already amassed 108 tackles, including 39 tackles for a loss (-187 yards), with 25 career sacks (-150 yards) with three forced fumbles and three recoveries. During his career, TCNJ’s defensive unit also pitched a pair of shutout wins.
Scholastically, Sykes tried his hand in several different sports, earning letters in crew, track, wrestling and football at Holy Spirit High School. A team captain and defensive MVP in football, Sykes is an exercise science major at TCNJ and is a two-time Dean’s List honoree. The son of Michael and Kathy Sykes, his father was the Fireman of the Year in 1998 in Atlantic City.
Year By Year Statistics
Year G UT AT TT TL (Yds) Sacks (Yds) INT-Yds. PD FF Fumbles (Yds)
2000 5 7 4 11 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
2001 Injured
2002 9 20 17 37 18 (85) 9 (61) 0-0 1 0 2 (0)
2003 10 29 31 60 21 (102) 16 (89) 0-0 2 2 1 (0)
Totals 24 56 52 108 39 (187) 25 (150) 0-0 3 3 3 (2)
