All-Time Team Sportsmanship Award Winners
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. ? On Thursday the Ohio Valley Conference announced that Austin Peay State University is the recipient of the 2008-09 Team Sportsmanship Award for men’s basketball.
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.
“The OVC places high value on sportsmanship and ethical conduct,” said Dr. Jon A. Steinbrecher, OVC Commissioner. “Our awards acknowledge excellence and are special because it is recognition that comes from one’s peers.”
The 2008-09 school year marks the fourth year the team sportsmanship honors have been awarded. This marks the second straight season Austin Peay has won the award.
“We are privileged to receive this award?we have certain expectations of our student-athletes in how they conduct themselves,” said Austin Peay head men’s basketball coach Dave Loos. “At the same time it easily could have been awarded to any team in this league. As a conference we compete hard against one another, but we all believe in values and ideals that brought us to this game in the first place.”
The Governors compiled a 13-5 OVC record and 19-14 overall mark in 2008-09. Austin Peay finished second in the league in the regular season and advanced to the championship game of the OVC Tournament. The Govs were selected to participate in the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, falling to eventual runner-up Bradley in the first round.
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.