WALTHAM, Mass. – Bentley University senior running back Bobby Tarr (Byfield/Bishop Fenwick HS) has been selected for the 2012 Nason Award for Senior Achievement by the New England Football Writers.

Tarr will be recognized on Thursday, Dec. 6 when the NEFW holds its annual Captains and Awards Banquet at the Montvale Plaza in Stoneham. The Nason Award has been presented annually since 1958 to the senior who has persevered against all odds to succeed in football.

"Bobby exemplifies what we as coaches look for in our student-athletes," said coach Thom Boerman. "Toughness, leadership, will to win, work ethic all apply to Bobby.  Overcoming some physical issues early in his career, Bobby worked hard to make himself a cornerstone of our team effort these past four years.

"Having once been one of the premier running backs in the history of Mass high school football, Bobby worked through the setbacks he encountered as a freshman to emerge as one of the best running backs in New England college football. In my first four years as a head coach at Bentley, I saw Bobby more than triple our per-game rushing average in that time. He is a quality young man and I will miss him!"

Tarr was recruited following a standout career at Bishop Fenwick High School, one that saw him become the third leading rusher in state high school history with 5,598 yards.

However, what seemed like a fast track to stardom was derailed even before it started.  The summer before his freshman year, Tarr had surgery on an injured hip that he had played on during his senior season of high school and still managed to run for 2,544 yards and 31 touchdowns.

Then, just as he was getting back to full strength that fall, he got sick, with what was eventually diagnosed as myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.  "I had been sick for a week and went home," said Tarr. "I had chest pain and elbow pain and back pain. It got pretty intense and I went to the hospital. I got an EKG and they thought I was having a heart attack. It turned out it was a virus that settled in heart."

"They gave me some medicine and it ended up going away in a couple weeks, but it did temporary damage. I couldn't get my heart rate up, so I missed my freshman season."

Tarr came back and saw limited action in 2009, running for 159 yards on 37 carries, and emerged as one of the conference's top backs in 2010. He averaged better than six yards a carry during the 2010 and 2011 season, and as a junior, amassed 860 running yards on a team that uses a spread offense and relies heavily on the pass.

This season, injuries struck again as Tarr had his knee scoped in the preseason and he also suffered a concussion that kept him out of two games and limited his effectiveness in others. Still he managed to run for 482 yards, with his 60.3 average third best in the Northeast-10, and five touchdowns.

Tarr saved his best for last, amassing 197 all-purpose yards in Bentley's season-ending 20-13 win over Assumption earlier this month. He ran for 81 and caught three screen passes for 116 yards (after having only 90 total receiving yards in his first 34 career games), including a 54-yarder for the go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth.

Tarr surpassed 2,000 yards during his career, finishing fifth on Bentley's all-time list, and his career rushing average of 5.6 ranks about tenth amongst active Division II players.

Tarr is the third Bentley player to receive the award, following Mike Nickerson (1994) and Mario Hernandez-Kenyon (2003).