Tech women's track & field team wins OVC Sportsmanship Award
The Tennessee Tech women's outdoor track & field team has captured its second consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Team Sportsmanship Award, the third Golden Eagle team this year to receive the honor.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Tech women's outdoor track & field team has captured the Ohio Valley Conference 2009-10 Team Sportsmanship Award, the second year in a row the honor has gone to coach Tony Cox' Golden Eagle squad.
The OVC announced the honors Wednesday, with Morehead State
University receiving the honor in men’s outdoor track and
field.
The track teams becomes the third Tech squad this year to win an
OVC Team Sportsmanship Award, following the soccer and women's golf
teams.
Voted on by the student-athletes and coaches of the respective sports, the team awards are bestowed upon the Conference squads deemed to have best exhibited the standards of sportsmanship and ethical behavior as outlined by the OVC and NCAA. Included in the areas for evaluation are the conduct of student-athletes, coaches, staff and administrators and fans.
“Without sportsmanship there are truly no meaningful
victories,” said Beth DeBauche, OVC Commissioner. “The
recipients of the OVC Team Sportsmanship awards should accept this
award with great pride for their fellow competitors have made it
clear their teams exemplify the best in intercollegiate
athletics.
"In receiving this prestigious honor other competitors are saying
these student-athletes compete with class, respect their opponents
and value fair play. That is quite a compliment as those are all
traits that will lead to true victories throughout the course of
life,” she said.
The 2009-10 school year marks the fifth year the team sportsmanship honors have been awarded. This marks the third award for the Morehead State men’s program (they also won in 2005-06 and 2007-08) and the second-straight award for the Tennessee Tech women’s program.
This year’s host for the OVC Outdoor Championship, the Tennessee Tech women's team had its highest finish in school history, placing fifth overall
“It is an honor to win the sportsmanship award,”
said Tennessee Tech head coach Tony Cox. “We won it last
year, so to win it two years in a row is a surprise. It is
especially rewarding to win this award this year, since we hosted
the conference meet. We put a lot of work into making this
meet enjoyable for the visiting teams.
"Showing good sportsmanship was an important part of that," he
added. "This award is a reflection of the character of the young
women on this team. This year's team was a special group of
athletes. They worked hard to come up the highest finish in
school history, and were able to show respect and sportsmanship to
the other teams at the same time. I am so proud of what they
have accomplished.”
Morehead State placed fifth at this year’s OVC Outdoor Championship.
“It is an honor to win this award,” said Morehead State head coach Tommy Barksdale. “We have a great group of young men and they work very hard. They know that in our sport, sportsmanship means everything. This award certainly shows what type of young men we have and want.”
Implemented in August 2005, the team honors are the most recent
addition to an awards program that recognizes and celebrates
sportsmanship within the Conference.
In 1998, the league established the Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship
Award, presented annually to a male or female student-athlete of
junior or senior status who best exemplifies the characteristics of
the late Morehead State student-athlete, coach and administrator.
Five years later, the Conference added the OVC Sportsmanship Award,
presented annually to the member institution selected by its peers
to have best exhibited the standards of sportsmanship and ethical
behavior as outlined by the OVC and NCAA.
In 1995, the Ohio Valley Conference implemented a first-of-its-kind “Sportsmanship Statement,” a policy promoting principles of fair play, ethical conduct and respect for one’s opponent. The statement answered the challenge of the NCAA Presidents Commission to improve sportsmanship in collegiate athletics, and has become a model for others to follow across the nation.
