Four county schools earn sportsmanship awards

Sportsmanship is one of the oldest philosophies taught in all of sports. Win or lose athletes are to exhibit fair behavior towards their opponents no matter the outcome.

According to the Georgia High School Association, four local schools displayed impeccable sportsmanship through the athletic seasons and were awarded the 2021-2022 Cooperative Spirit Sportsmanship Awards.

Sponsored by the Georgia Electric Membership Cooperatives the award reinforces the GHSA philosophy: “Students, athletes, coaches, spectators and all others associated with high school activities programs should adhere to the fundamental values of respect, fairness, honesty and responsibility.”

Marietta, McEachern, Walker and Wheeler were among the 64 GHSA member schools to receive the award.

“I think it’s one of the most important honors you can receive,” Marietta athletic director Craig McKinney said. “It’s voted on by the administrators from other schools in the region. So that really gives you a good illustration of how your student athletes and your coaches are perceived by your colleagues.”

The award not only represents the school, but also how the community as a whole displays sportsmanship to opposing teams.

“Sportsmanship is one of the things that we take great pride in,” McEachern athletic director Myra Camese said. “We want our athletes to exhibit or exemplify the ideas of sportsmanship on and off the court. We want them to have ethical behavior and exhibit fair play which is critical to the sport and critical to our brand.”

The athletic directors said that they have developed and implemented programs with their coaches that trickles down to their athletes the importance of sportsmanship and team building.

“One thing that I’ve tried to implement in the last year, and we’ll be expanding on it this year is the student athletic advisory council,” McKinney said. “The council allows each of our coaches to nominate leaders from their team to meet with myself and other administrators at various points throughout the year and discuss important topics like sportsmanship and other leadership topics in order to help positively impact our school school culture.”