Strikers win Sportsmanship Award

I liked this article about a girl's soccer tournament that focuses on sportsmanship. I especially liked how the coach handed out encouraging sayings for parents to hollar while they encourage their kids.

"The team, coaches and spectators have to have good behavior, and while Palmer obviously coaches the players, she also did some coaching for the parents and other spectators, passing out sheets of paper that included the 80 positive things to say while watching soccer, including, of course, “Way to go,”..."

Strikers return from tourney with the sportsmanship award

Jessica Palmer (right) of the Kaua‘i Extreme Kickers gives chase after a Hilo player in the final game for the Kaua‘i team in the American Youth Soccer Organization Kirk Banks Tournament at Waipi‘o Peninsula Soccer Complex on O‘ahu recently.
Shannon Kay/Contributed photo

Though they lost three games and tied one, playing four games in four days, a Kaua‘i American Youth Soccer Organization squad, the Kaua‘i Extreme Strikers, still came home from the AYSO Kirk Banks Tournament on O‘ahu as winners.

They not only won sportsmanship medals, but received the maximum number of sportsmanship points available, 100 (maximum 25 per game), said coach Donna Palmer in an e-mail and telephone interview.

The tournament is based on sportsmanship, and in the under-10 girls’ division, wins, losses, ties, goals scored and goals allowed, don’t figure into the sportsmanship criteria, she explained.

The team, coaches and spectators have to have good behavior, and while Palmer obviously coaches the players, she also did some coaching for the parents and other spectators, passing out sheets of paper that included the 80 positive things to say while watching soccer, including, of course, “Way to go,” she said.

Read the entire article at TheGardenIsland

Please submit your sportsmanship articles - stories@trustedsports.com

Sportsmanship - Track Competitors Give Back Medals

Precious Medal
An altruistic act by eight high school runners in Washington reaffirmed the value of sportsmanship

"...The trick, as always, is in knowing where to look, because the most uplifting examples often occur in the most out-of-the-way places—like the state 4A track and field championships on May 23 in Pasco, Wash. That was where Nicole Cochran, a senior at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, thought she had won the girls' 3,200-meter title by 3.05 seconds until a judge disqualified her, ruling that she had stepped outside her lane on one of the turns. Almost everyone, including Cochran's competitors, agreed that the judge was in error, and a video of the race later showed that one of Cochran's teammates had actually committed the violation. Still, the title was awarded to the runner-up, sophomore Andrea Nelson of Spokane's Shadle Park High.

Nelson was almost as upset by the injustice as Cochran. "That's not how I wanted to win state," she says. "It wasn't fair. She deserved it. She totally crushed everybody." After the eight top finishers each took the podium, Nelson decided to do what she could to make things right. She stepped off the platform, walked over to Cochran and placed the first-place medal around the neck of the rightful winner. "It's your medal," she told Cochran.

"It gave me chills," says Cochran, now a freshman runner at Harvard. "It was just an incredible, surprising thing for Andrea to do, because it wasn't her fault. No one would have blamed her if she kept the medal." Cochran wasn't the only one who was moved. When Sarah Lord saw what Nelson had done, she took off her second-place award and placed it around Nelson's neck. Then third-place finisher Devin McMahon removed her medal and hung it around Lord's. And so it went, with each of the eight girls—Kate Stuart, Sandra Martinez, Annie Dear, Alyssa Andrews and Lyndy Davis were the others—bestowing her medal on the runner who had finished ahead of her. "As adults," says Matt Ellis, Cochran's coach, "we can learn from what those girls did.""

Read the entire article at SI.com

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Players score points with sportsmanship

Today's story about sportsmanship was written by Al Losey, sportswriter for the Star-Gazette and former girls basketball coach at Williamson High School.

http://www.stargazette.com/article/20090405/SPORTS05/904050366/1119

Players score points with sportsmanship

Not all high school basketball players flash a smile and are helpful to the referees. Many prefer to be flashy, and some argue when they're caught in violation of the rules.

So, here's a breath of fresh air that blew through our usually stuffy gymnasiums this season: The Southern New York Basketball Officials Association picked Elmira Free Academy's Liz Wick and Odessa-Montour's John Blaha as their 2008-09 Sportsmanship Award winners.

The award goes to players who were judged to be fair and played by the rules and who were good winners and good losers. Wick and Blaha are both seniors, and during the season they both exhibited qualities that basketball officials appreciated.

"To us, the positive attitude and sportsmanship is always what we're looking at," said Southern New York Basketball Officials Association President Tom Owen. "The award winners have always been seniors, and they are the kids that are having fun. We, as officials, are always pleased when the players have a good time. We all tend to lose our perspective about high school sports sometimes, but the last thing I always say to the players before the game starts is, 'Smile out there.'"

Wick, who is a Star-Gazette All-Twin Tiers first-team selection, credits her father, in part, for her playing philosophy.

"I like to play hard," Wick said. "But I always keep in mind that it's a game and not to take it too seriously. My dad has always told me that if it's not fun, it's time to do something else. So, I do have fun and I try to take a leadership role when it comes to sportsmanship. It's the little things you can do that add up, like picking up a ball and handing it to the official or not complaining about the calls. That's all you have to do."

Blaha, a point guard, was instrumental in the Indians' postseason run but never changed his court demeanor, even when the pressure was turned up.

"John is the ultimate competitor," Odessa-Montour coach Brad Clark said. "But regardless of the outcome, he's always the epitome of what we try to get out of all the kids. He's the first to shake hands after the game and, out on the court, he is always thinking about what is the right thing to do. He's a good student and just an all-around great kid."


Blaha says there's so much going on during a basketball game that he can't think about trash-talking or getting distracted by officials' calls.

"A lot of kids trash-talk, but I just let my game do the talking," said Blaha, who was an All-Twin Tiers second-team selection. "As the point guard, I've got too much to think about for the good of the team to let something personal get inside my head. Then I wouldn't be doing my best.

"After the game, some guys don't like shaking hands, but I want to go shake hands; I try to be the first in line. And if somebody had a good game against us, I tell them so."

Certainly, there were many other players who exhibited these types of qualities through the course of the season. Other girls nominated for the officials' award were Emma Pautz and Caley Manuel of Notre Dame, Brittany Evans of Odessa-Montour, and Stephanie Bond of Watkins Glen. Other boys nominees were Star-Gazette All-Twin Tiers Player of the Year Mike Backer of Southside and Chris Matthews of Notre Dame.

This is a time when a lot of young players learn how to act on the basketball court by watching spoiled, tantrum-prone NBA players. It certainly is refreshing to be reminded that a lot of local high school players play the game the way it's meant to be played.

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