SEMO's Hess caps 2022-23 school year with top OVC honor

Veteran Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz has conducted several seminars on leadership throughout the region, and at one point in the presentation, he shows a film of Redhawk running back Geno Hess in action.

No, it isn’t one of the scintillating and powerful bursts that Hess has become famous for, as he evolved into the most productive running back in both SEMO, as well as the Ohio Valley Conference histories. It is actually a low moment in the development of Hess, who is shown lumbering through off-season wind sprints after coming back to campus for summer workouts out of shape.

It’s hard to grasp that such a moment for Hess, unless you had witnessed his maturation process, firsthand, as Matukewicz has.

That out-of-shape, exhausted athlete changed direction – in every way fathomable – and capped a record-shattering 2022-23 school year by recently being named the OVC Male Athlete of the Year.

“Oh my gosh,” Matukewicz stutters when talking about Hess, “I can’t even… it’s hard to put into words.”

Hess had already been awarded the OVC Offensive Player of the Year honor among football players, but this award takes into consideration every single male athlete, in every single sport, at every single OVC institution.

“It’s like a movie,” Matukewicz said of Hess’ story. “You would think that it is made up.”

The award was selected by the OVC athletics directors and communications directors, and Hess will be recognized Friday during the OVC Honors Brunch near Nashville.

The list of achievements in the past nine months by Hess is another thing that one would think is “made up.”

The graduate student ranked first in the nation in scoring (11.5 ppg), rushing touchdowns (21), and total touchdowns (23).

He was (obviously) a First-Team All-OVC selection, and was named to the Associated Press, Stats Perform, American Football Coaches Association, The Bluebloods, and Phil Steele All-America teams, while finishing fifth in the overall voting for the Stats Perform Walter Payton Award. That was the highest finish by an OVC player in a decade.

Hess not only broke SEMO records in career rushing yards (4,112), single-game rushing yards (317, vs. Murray State), which was the highest total by an FCS player all season, career rushing attempts (689), career rushing touchdowns (53), single-season rushing touchdowns (21), most career 200-yard games (4), career points scored (330), single-season points scored (138), career total touchdowns (55) and single-season total touchdowns (23) during 2022, he also ran for over 100 yards in seven of his 12 starts, and went over 200 yards on three occasions.

He topped the OVC in rushing yards (1,691), rushing yards per game (140.9), rushing touchdowns (21), scoring, total touchdowns (23), and all-purpose yards (150.4 ypg).

Nationally, he rated third in rushing yards per carry (7.2), second in rushing yards, third in rushing yards per game, and 10th in all-purpose yards.

Additionally, Hess broke the OVC single-game rushing record and the league's career scoring record. His 138 points were the second-most in OVC single-season history.

“I can’t believe this is reality,” Matukewicz said. “I’m just so proud of the accomplishments that he has made.”

Matukewicz said, and he emphasized that Hess would agree, that “You don’t have a Male Athlete of the Year unless you have a good program.”

The Redhawks were undefeated in OVC play for the first time in program history and had the league's top rushing offense with Hess in the backfield.

“This is a program award,” Matukewicz said, “and Geno would tell you that.”

Hess is the fourth SEMO athlete to win the honor. The others include William "Bud" Eley (basketball, 1998-99), Jeremy Johnson (baseball, 1999-2000), and Jim Klocke (baseball, 2009-10).