Florida Tech Football Names Panther 2015 Captains

By  //  March 4, 2015

Cato, Sand, Sheffield and Stapleton

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On Wednesday, Florida Tech announced four players that have been named captains for the 2015 football season by their teammates. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily)

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – On Wednesday, Florida Tech announced four players that have been named captains for the 2015 football season by their teammates.

Mark Cato, Trevor Sand, Skylar Sheffield and Chris Stapleton have all been bestowed with the illustrious honor.

Steve Englehart
Steve Englehart

“At the end of the year and before we started winter conditioning we wanted to take a vote on team captains,” said head coach Steve Englehart.

“These guys were selected by their peers and I think all four guys do a great job of leading by example. They are guys who have contributed a lot to this program already. I think they’ll do a good job leading us into the 2015 season.”

Mark Cato
Mark Cato

Mark Cato earned eight of the 11 total conference freshman of the week honors after leading the Gulf South Conference in passing touchdowns with 32, good for seventh in all of Division II.

The Alachua, Florida native also ranked second in the conference in passing yards, tallying 2,926 yards on the season. Following his impressive season, Cato was named the GSC Offensive Freshman of the Year and an All-GSC Second Team honoree.

The redshirt freshman was also bestowed with USA College Football Freshman All-American and Beyond Sports Network All-Super Region 2 Third Team laurels.

Trevor Sand
Trevor Sand

Chris Stapleton

Trevor Sand led the GSC in rushing with 1,105 yards, while also recording nine touchdowns.

During his redshirt sophomore season he averaged 6.4 yards per carry and was the only conference player to average triple digits in rushing, registering an average of 100.5 yards per game.

The Seminole, Florida native recorded FIT’s first-ever 1,000 yard rushing season, leading to Don Hansen All-Super Region 2 Team and All-GSC First Team nods.

Chris Stapleton
Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton led the GSC in total tackles with 90, including 52 solo stops.

The Navarre, Florida native was second on the team in tackles for loss with 11 and sacks with five. Additionally, the redshirt sophomore forced a fumble at West Georgia and recovered a fumble against Tarleton State.

Stapleton received All-GSC Second Team distinction for his efforts.

Skylar Sheffield
Skylar Sheffield

Skylar Sheffield started all 11 games during his sophomore season, registering 33 total tackles including 16 total stops. Of those tackles, seven occurred behind the line of scrimmage.

The Henderson, Tennessee native nabbed two sacks in 2014. Sheffield was named an All-GSC Second Team selection in 2013.

Stapleton is the only returning captain from a year ago, while Cato, Sand and Sheffield all take on the responsibility for the first time in their Panther career.

Spring practice rolls on for the Panthers, who will hold a full scrimmage on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET at the Varsity Training Center. The scrimmage is open to the public, free of charge.