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