Former Dyer County standout Andre Flowers was recently honored with the Don Nottingham Cup, an award given to the most improved offensive player at Kent State University for his hard work and dedication shown on and off the field.

"This is a nice award and it shows that I've been working hard and improving day-by- day," said Flowers.

The award is named after Don Nottingham, a former running back from Kent State and was nicknamed the "Human bowling ball".

Nottingham was a member of the 1973 Miami Dolphins Super Bowl team and is currently ranked fourth on the Kent State all time rushing list. Flowers is currently a sophomore running back for the Golden Flashes, and was honored with this award after Kent State's final spring Scrimmage last Saturday. As a freshman at Kent State, Flowers rushed for 279 yards on 64 carries, while scoring one touchdown in his ten games played in 2007.

"This season I think I will get a lot more playing time,"said Flowers.

While a member of the Choctaws Flowers rushed for 6,400 yards and 74 touchdowns in his four year career. Flowers also had three strait years of over 1,300 yards rushing, while recording over 1,600 yards and 20 touchdowns his senior season alone.

"He exemplifies exactly what we want to all of our players to be like here at Dyer County," said Choctaw football coach Adam Renshaw. Flowers rushed for 364 yards and five touchdowns in a single game his senior season, which is currently a school record at Dyer County.

"Andre winning this award means a lot to me because it shows his hard work and determination to be a great football player," said Renshaw.

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The standout running back also lettered in basketball and track and field while a member of the Choctaws.

"Andre always gave his best effort on the football field no matter how banged up or sore he was," said Renshaw.

In the upcoming 2008 season Flowers will be sharing time with teammate Eugene Jarvis who carried the ball the majority of the time for the Golden Flashes last season and rushed for 1600 yards and 10 touchdowns. "Winning this award shows the coaches that I can be trusted on the field," said Flowers.

Flowers is a business management major at Kent State and is the 20 year old son of Andrew and Martha Flowers of Ridgely Tennessee.