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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia tight end Colter Phillips and his two brothers share the weekly nomination for the 2010 Discover Orange Bowl Courage Award, to be announced at the end of the season by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA).

Phillips, along with his older brother Andrew and younger brother Paul, of Darnestown, Md., lost their father, William D. “Bill” Phillips, in a plane crash in Alaska last August.

Andrew is a fifth-year senior and starting guard at Stanford and Paul is a freshman tight end redshirting this season at Indiana. They were preparing for the start of the college football season when tragedy struck.

Their younger brother, Willy Phillips, 13, was one of four survivors. Five people were killed, including former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska; Bill Phillips, 56, a former college football player at Evansville, had worked on Stevens’ staff from 1981-86. The plane crash occurred on a remote mountainside during a salmon fishing trip.

All three brothers considered whether to play football this season, but decided to return to school and play. Andrew Phillips is a three-year starter at guard for the 9-1 Cardinal. Colter Phillips has moved into the Cavaliers’ starting lineup due to the season-ending injury to Joe Torchia – he is currently tied for second on the squad with three touchdown catches.

For the fifth straight year, the Football Writers Association of America and the Discover Orange Bowl will announce a weekly nominee for the Discover Orange Bowl/FWAA Courage Award each Wednesday during the season. A blue-ribbon panel will determine the award’s recipient from those weekly nominees. The recipient of the Courage Award will be announced in December and presented with the trophy in conjunction with this year’s Discover Orange Bowl.

The Courage Award was created by ESPN The Magazine’s senior writer Gene Wojciechowski, also an FWAA member. A select group of FWAA members vote on the recipient each year. The requirements for nomination include displaying courage on or off the field, including overcoming an injury or physical handicap, preventing a disaster or living through hardship.

Previous winners of the FWAA’s Courage Award are the Connecticut Huskies (2009), Tulsa’s Wilson Holloway (2008), Navy’s Zerbin Singleton (2007), Clemson’s Ray Ray McElrathbey (2006), the Tulane Green Wave (2005), Memphis’ Haracio Colen (2004), San Jose State’s Neil Parry (2003) and Toledo’s William Bratton (2002).

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