Kansas Wesleyan football coach Matt Middleton was proud of D'Heaven Domena's numerous accomplishments on the field during the 2025 season.
Middleton is perhaps even prouder of his achievements in the classroom. Domena has been named the 2025 NAIA Academic All-America® First Team running back as selected by the College Sports Communicators. An Accounting major, Domena compiled a 3.72 GPA during the fall semester of his senior year.
On the field, he rushed for 1,388 yards in 11 games (126.2 per contest) and scored 10 touchdowns. He caught 14 passes for 158 yards and two more touchdowns as KWU finished with a 7-4 record in Middleton's first season.
Academica All-America® honorees are nominated for the award by their institution's athletic communication department. Nominees must have at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA, as well as be a sophomore academically and athletically. Nominees must also play in 90 percent of team games and play a significant role on the team. All nominees are award Academic All-District ® honors, but only a select number of nominees are advanced to the national Academic All-America® ballot, as voted upon by College Sports Communicators members.
Domena's best outing was against Sterling on Oct. 25, when he ran for 259 yards on 40 carries and scored three touchdowns. He had 191 yards on 41 carries against sixth-ranked Friends on Nov. 1 in Wichita. Domena surpassed 100 yards rushing in six games and averaged 195 in the last four.
"First of all, I'm super proud of him," Middleton said. "Not only is he a really good football player, he's a really good student, too. It shows his maturity about what's important. He attacked it athletically and academically with full force and is going to be super successful in life. I think he's an awesome young man."
Domena, who hails from Charlotte, N.C., said he's motivated by several factors.
"I know where I want to be in life; I just had to make sacrifices," he said. "I didn't go party, I didn't do anything. I stayed in my house, made sure I did all my classwork, met with my teachers, just countless amounts of hours. A lot of my dedication is because I knew I was the only person in my family who was on the verge of graduating college. I just wanted to build that steppingstone for my little brothers and other people."
Spare time was rare this fall. Domena balanced his academic responsibilities with football meetings, practices, games and a full-time job.
"I'm very organized, and I have everything written down to the T," he said. "I go over everything, triple-check everything. I feel like that definitely was a big part of my success throughout my college career, just time management and knowing what I need to get done first, be ahead of everything, and then ask questions."
Domena gained a starting position when All-America running back Luke Armstrong suffered a season-ending injury in the second game. Armstrong was an NAIA Academic First Team All-American in 2024.
"When he got his opportunity to play, he made the most of it," Middleton said. "But you're talking about a young man who's a little bit older, who's lived life, knew what he wanted to accomplish and did it, but that's who he is. Whatever he does, he's going to go all-in and is super disciplined.
"I'm glad that he finally got to show what he was capable of on the field, and then, obviously, the opportunity that he had to accomplish what he did on campus with an Accounting degree is even bigger."
Domena was recently named assistant store manager at Dick's Sporting Goods in Salina.