APSU Lady Govs Golf voted OVC Sportsmanship Award for Sport

APSU Sports: Austin Peay Women’s Golf

Brentwood, TN – Austin Peay State University women’s golf team is the recipient of the 2011-12 Ohio Valley Conference Team Sportsmanship Award for its sport.

Voted on by the student-athletes and coaches of the respective sports, team awards are bestowed upon 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.”

The 2011-12 school year marks the seventh year the team sportsmanship honors have been awarded. It marks the first award for the Lady Govs.  Austin Peay finished fifth at the OVC Women’s Golf Championship this season.

“We are truly honored to receive this award,” said APSU head coach Sara Robson. “The girls that represent this program exemplify what golf stands for and they live their lives on and off the golf course with honor and integrity. It is truly a blessing to coach such amazing young women who take their job of representing not only our program but this athletic department, University and the OVC very seriously.

“I have seen them handle some very tough situations with dignity and grace, and they seek to treat each competitor with the respect they deserve.”

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.