Austin Peay Sports Information
Brentwood, TN – For a third straight year Austin Peay State University has been named recipient of the Ohio Valley Conference Women’s Golf Team Sportsmanship Award.
At the same time it was announced Tennessee-Martin was named 2013-14 recipient of the men’s golf award.
Included in the areas for evaluation are the conduct of student-athletes, coaches, staff and administrators and fans.
“It is an honor for our program to receive the team sportsmanship award for the third straight year,” said APSU coach Sara Robson. “The girls pride themselves on being good role models and treating others how they wish to be treated. They live their lives with honor and integrity and I couldn’t be more proud of them. The OVC has some amazing athletes and has many golf teams deserving of this award.”
Austin Peay finished sixth at the OVC Women’s Golf Championship this year.
“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.”
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.
