For a season-long performance worthy of comeback-player-of-the-year honors, Arlington’s Mason Cunningham was chosen as the 2025 Offensive Player of the Year in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.
The Yorktown High School graduate and senior football standout for the Division III Hampden-Sydney College Tigers received the award, in addition to being chosen first-team all-conference, as a result of impressive statistics in 10 games as a wide receiver.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pound senior was the first Hampden-Sydney player to win the award since 2017.
“It was great to be selected first team,” Cunningham told ARLnow. “I didn’t expect to be chosen the Player of the Year as well. I was very happy about that.”
This past fall, Cunningham caught 47 passes for 869 yards and 11 touchdowns. He averaged 18.5 yards per catch and amassed an average of 86.9 receiving yards per game while catching three scoring passes in one of those games.
Cunningham had four 100-yard receiving games, including a season-high 168 yards on nine catches and two touchdowns against Bridgewater College.
The senior led the Old Dominion Athletic Conference in receiving yards. In addition, he had four punt returns for 24 yards.
Cunningham missed the entire 2024 campaign with a serious ACL injury to his right knee. The injury came after he established himself as a Division III football standout at the Virginia college during his 2022 and 2023 seasons.
“My recovery went pretty smoothly, but it was a mental and physical battle I had to take one step at a time,” Cunningham said. “I wanted to work my way back and earn my spot again. Then, once you finally get back on the field, mentally you have to forget about the injury. That takes time.”
Cunningham said that, following recovery, he has seen no reduction in his skills. “If anything, I felt stronger,” he said.
Hampden-Sydney offensive coordinator Max Beal praised Cunningham’s season.
“Mason’s consistency and big play ability set the tone for our offense,” Beal said. “Having the year he had after coming off a season-ending injury makes it that much more extraordinary. Battling back from injury shows his commitment to the team and his willingness to endure. He is very much deserving of the Offensive Player of the Year.”
The Player of the Year honor was Cunningham’s second big conference award at Hampden-Sydney. As a freshman wide receiver in his 2022 debut season, he was chosen as the conference’s Rookie of the Year for catching 59 passes for 660 yards and six TDs. He also had 43 yards in punt returns.
For his three-year playing career at Hampden-Sydney, Cunningham caught 185 passes for 2,323 yards and 24 touchdowns. He also had 123 yards in punt returns and 16 yards rushing.
Cunningham was chosen first-team all-conference on offense in 2023 and 2025 and second team in 2022.
Because of his injury red-shirt season in 2024, Cunningham has one or two more seasons of college football eligibility remaining. By entering the NCAA’s crowded transfer portal, he hopes to attract attention of Division I programs, but also could opt to remain at Hampden-Sydney.
At Yorktown, Cunningham earned the nickname “Moose” for being a three-sport standout in football, basketball and soccer. He was an all-district player in all three sports his senior year, in addition to being a first-team all-region player in football and soccer, and the team’s MVP in football and basketball.
In football his senior year, Cunningham had five kick returns for touchdowns, gained 1,550 all-purpose yards, scored 10 receiving TDs and caught 47 passes to help Yorktown win the Liberty District championship.
In soccer, he helped the team finish second in the state tournament.
