« Football 2019

Reese Donahue

School
West Virginia University
Position
Defensive Line
Major
Exercise Physiology

Classroom

Reese Donahue is a two-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team honoree. He has earned a spot on the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll numerous times and has been a member of WVU’s Garrett Ford Academic Honor Roll numerous times. He was nominated for the National Football Foundation’s Campbell Award and Scholar Athlete team and will graduate in December 2019 with his bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology while minoring in psychology.

Character

Donahue is one of the team leaders, being voted to the football team’s leadership council by his peers. He is a good teammate in the locker room, always willing to help his teammates when things arise. When the team loses a game and not many players are willing to step up and answer the media questions about the game, he is always willing to stand up and represent the team and handle the tough situation.

He serves as a liaison between the team and the compliance unit, ensuring that the player’s voice is heard on issues dealing with compliance. He is a big brother on the football team and is assigned one of the younger players on the team to mentor and make sure they can navigate their schedule of classes and football and understand what is expected of them as a member of the team.

He was selected as one of the team’s representatives at the Big 12 media day because of his character and leadership. He also was selected as WVU’s representative for the Big 12 Conference Champion for Life and served on a panel to talk about being in a leadership position on the team and what it means to represent West Virginia. He is the defensive line room leader and serves as a liaison with the coaching staff on behalf of the defensive line.

Community

Donahue has volunteered at the legacy therapy rebuilding facility hospital as a role model and has given encouragement to the patients. He participated in the Mountaineer Play Days (similar to the NFL 60), encouraging the kids to live healthy lifestyles, eat well and be active. He participated in West Virginia Water Crisis Relief, where he helped deliver supplies during a flood in southern West Virginia during the summer of 2016.

Donahue has also been involved in Day of Service, cleaning parks in West Virginia, and Falling Run Trail construction, through which he volunteered with the park service to help construct trails. He visited children being paired with the Make-a-wish Foundation in Florida and visited underprivileged children in Texas. He has volunteered and visited children at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital, where he makes visits to the hospital often. He has also participated in Walk the Talk with Dana and Walk the Talk with Hoss to help raise money for WVU Medicine Children’s and the Hoss Foundation.

Competition

Donahue is a three-year starter on the defensive line for West Virginia. He has helped the Mountaineers to a 26-14 record during his career as WVU has made three bowl appearances. Donahue has played in 39 games during his career and has 79 tackles, including 43 solo tackles, 2.5 sacks and 8.0 tackles for loss. He also has one fumble recovery.

(All stats as of nomination time.)