Southeast's Amano Earns Dave Rimington Award as Top I-AA Center 3/11/2004 12:00:00 AM SEMO's Eugene Amano Southeast Missouri senior Eugene Amano has been chosen for the Dave Rimington Award as the top center in NCAA Division I-AA football. Amano, a 6-foot-3, 315-lb. member of the Indians' offensive line, was a first team All-America selection last season by the American Football Coaches Association and by Don Hansen's Football Gazette. In 2003, he was chosen 2nd team All-OVC after grading out at 94% for both run and pass blocking and averaging nine knock-downs per game. The Rimington Award is named after Dave Rimington, Nebraska's former Hall of Fame center, and is sponsored by the Boomer Esiason Foundation. Esiason, a college (Maryland) and long-time NFL quarterback, was Rimington's teammate for four years with the Cincinnati Bengels. He created the Rimington Award in 2000 to honor the outstanding former I-A center because there was no national award for that position. This year, he expanded the award to also honor the top center in Divisions I-AA, II, and III and NAIA. "If I'm sure of nothing else, I know centers are the game's unsung heroes," Esiason declared, "and it's for that reason the Rimington award has been expanded to honor four more of them." This year's list of winners included Jake Grove of Virginia Tech for I-A, Amano for I-AA, Kevin Palmer of Texas A & M-Kingsville for II, Tom Doyle of Capital in III and Dominic Miraglia of Northwestern Oklahoma State in NAIA.