ALFRED, NY – Joe Copp (Minoa, NY/East Syracuse-Minoa) became the second Saxon football player in a row to earn recognition from the conference as he was selected to be the Empire 8 Football Defensive Player of the Week on Monday in an official announcement from Associate Commissioner, Joe Venniro.
 
Teammate, TJ Marsh (East Aurora, NY/East Aurora) earned Co-Defensive Player of the Week last week after an impressive performance at Juniata College.
 
Against the #20 team in the country, Copp broke a season-best with 13 solo tackles and 15 total. Out of those tackles, he assisted on one for a loss in a 22-0 loss to Ithaca College, leading a defense that held the Bombers to their lowest-scoring head-to-head game since 2018.
 
Copp was joined in the Empire 8 spotlight by Macy Youngberg (Falconer, NY/Falconer Central) as the Women's Tennis Player of the Week and Kiani Barnard-Pratt (Westford, MA/Westford Academy) as the Women's Soccer Co-Defensive Player of the Week.