HELENA, Mont. – The Frontier Conference has announced its nominees for several 2026 NAIA National Awards, recognizing outstanding student-athletes for their excellence in academics, athletics, leadership, character, and service. Carroll College Linebacker Henry Gross has been announced as the Frontier's 2026 A.O. Duer Scholarship Award nominee.

The NAIA's national awards recognize student-athletes who embody the association's commitment to academic achievement, competitive excellence, leadership, and service to their campuses and communities. 

Named in honor of the NAIA's former executive secretary, the A.O. Duer Scholarship Award recognizes one male and one female junior student-athlete who has excelled in scholarship, character, and citizenship.

Henry Gross | Helena, Mont. | Football | R-JR

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Gross has combined academic excellence, athletic success, and extraordinary campus involvement throughout his Carroll career. A leader of the Fighting Saints Football team, Gross earned Honorable Mention All-Frontier Conference-West this past season. The redshirt junior matched his career-high, finishing the season with 49.0 tackles, finishing third on the team with 4.0 sacks and second on the team with 9.5 tackles-for-loss.  

In the classroom, Gross is equally as impressive, earning College Sports Communicators Academic All-District recognition in each of the last two seasons, alongside being named an NAIA Daktronics Scholar-Athlete twice, and a two-time Frontier Academic All-Conference selection.

His leadership extends well beyond football as a Student-Athlete Advisory Council representative, president of the Carroll Pre-Dental Club, vice president of the Red Cross Club, treasurer of the Culture Club, and leader of the football program's Boys to Men initiative. Gross has also participated in a dental mission trip to the Nazareth Home for God's Children Orphanage in Sang, Ghana, while volunteering with Florence-Crittenton and numerous community service projects.

Gross is the first Frontier Conference A.O. Duer Scholarship Nominee since Spencer Berger in 2024. He will now move on to represent the league on the national ballot, with the NAIA National winner to be announced on NAIA Awards Day in September.

Three Fighting Saints have earned the prestigious national honor in school history. Tyler Emmert became the school's first winner in 2004, followed by 2026 Carroll Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Kathleen Mulligan Solly - the first female winner in school history in 2014. Leah Esposito was the last Saint to win the honor, earning the scholarship in 2016.