Dan Whalen (born August 6, 1988) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

from

Willoughby, Ohio Willoughby is a city in Lake County, Ohio and is a suburb of Cleveland. The population was 22,268 at the time of the 2010 census. History Willoughby's first permanent settler was David Abbott in 1798, who operated a gristmill. Abbott and his ...

High school career

Dan played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

at Willoughby South High School. He only started one year, leading the Rebels to a 10-0 regular season while throwing for over 2,500 yards, 27 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions. In a first round playoff game against Olmsted Falls High School, Whalen threw for 356 yards and 5 touchdowns while only playing in the first half of a 49-10 win.

College career

Whalen played at Case Western Reserve University under head coach

Greg Debeljak Greg Debeljak is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Case Western Reserve University, a position he has held since 2004. Debeljak and his Spartans compete at the NCAA Division III level as a member of t ...

. He was a four-year starter at Case throwing for 9,720 yards, with 742 completions from 1,229 attempts, and with 87 touchdowns, and graduated in 2009 as the school's all-time leader in pass attempts, completions, yards and touchdown passes. Whalen was named a first team All-American his senior season by the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

(AFCA) and d3football.com. Dan was also a two-time finalist for the

Gagliardi Trophy The Gagliardi Trophy was first presented in 1993 to the Outstanding Division III college football player of the year by the Jostens Company and the J-Club of Saint John's University in Minnesota. Since that time, the award has become one of the ...

(Division III Player of the Year) and named

University Athletic Association The University Athletic Association (UAA) is an American athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are highly selective universities located in Georgia, Illinois, M ...

(UAA) Offensive Player of the Year three times. While the starting quarterback, Whalen led Case to 31 consecutive regular season wins, three straight perfect regular seasons, three straight UAA titles, and three straight NCAA postseasons. Dan also played punter in college.

Professional career

Cleveland Gladiators

Assigned (added to the roster) to the Cleveland Gladiators on Feb. 2, 2011 and removed from the Gladiator's roster on March 13, 2011. Whalen then returned to the roster two weeks later on March 25, 2011. Dan played in parts of six games for the Gladiators in the 2011 season, leading two come from behind wins and scoring 9 total touchdowns. Midway through the season, Whalen decided to leave the team to pursue his career as a writer. He was reassigned on June 6, 2011.

Orlando Predators

Assigned (added to the roster) to the Orlando Predators on March 20, 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whalen, Dan 1988 births Living people People from Willoughby, Ohio Sportspeople from Greater Cleveland Players of American football from Ohio American football quarterbacks Case Western Spartans football players Cleveland Gladiators players Orlando Predators players