Hobart College senior midfielder Bobby Dattilo has rightfully drawn a great deal of attention in the build-up to the 2012 lacrosse season.
 
The Face-Off Yearbook preseason second team All-American was taken with the first pick in the fourth round of the Major League Lacrosse Draft by the Rochester Rattlers. Two more accolades came Dattilo's way today.
 
The faceoff specialist is one of 20 candidates for the 2012 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. 
 
Dattilo is also one of 64 student-athletes named to the Tewaaraton Award Men's Watch List. The Tewaaraton Award is recognized as the preeminent lacrosse award honoring the nation's top male and female collegiate lacrosse players and is endorsed by the Mohawk Nation Council of Elders and US Lacrosse.
 
One of five team captains, Dattilo's won 58.8 percent of his faceoffs, the highest career winning percentage for any Division I Statesman. He also ranks fifth in career ground balls with 191, 72 off the Hobart DI record.
 
A 2011 first-team All-ECAC selection, Dattilo led the league and ranked third in the nation in faceoff winning percentage with a Hobart DI season record .649 (167-of-296). He also led the team and was eighth in the nation in ground balls (93, 6.64/g). On offense, Dattilo contributed a pair of goals and four assists.
 
The 20 candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season and placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, Division I men's coaches and fans who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
 
A biology major, Dattilo has given back to the community in a wide range of activities on campus, in the greater Geneva Community and in his hometown of Derry, N.H. He is just the second Hobart lacrosse student-athlete to be named a candidate for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award, joining Kevin Curtin.
 
Dattilo is the fifth Statesmen to be named to the Tewaaraton Watch list, joining Tyler Cassell '10, Greg McCarthy '05, Max Silberlicht '10, and Daryl Veltman '08.

Hobart will open its 110th varsity season on Sunday, Feb. 19 against Siena. The Statesmen and Saints will get underway at 5 p.m. capping off a triple header in the Carrier Dome that will also feature Air Force-Rutgers at 11 a.m. and Syracuse-Albany at 2 p.m. The game will be televised by Time Warner Cable Sports and broadcast by WHWS-FM (105.7 in Geneva).