Good Sportsmanship Award

Dear Good Sports,

I receive Google Alerts for various topics and I wanted to share this one with you.

Included in the Alert for good sportsmanship was an article by Jeff Edwards of the Natchez Democrat (Mississippi).

The headline of this article was "Natchez 10-year-old All-Stars win Sportsmanship Award."

The Natchez 10 team played in the Dixie Youth State Tournament against other All-Star teams their age from the state. The tournament also included 8 and 12-year-old-age groups as well who were eligible to win the award.

According to the article, the Houston Stuckey Sportsmanship Award (named in honor of the late Houston Stuckey, the Dixie Youth state director) is voted on by the tournament umpires and officials and awarded to the team whose players, coaches and fans "best exhibited integrity, character, discipline and sportsmanship."

Natchez Dixie Youth Commissioner Porky Smith said " ... the kids acted like young men when they got to the park, when they were on the playing field and when the game was over, win or lose. You didn't see any pouting. They showed they were fine young men, and they're just 10-year-olds."

(The players didn't win the tournament, but finished runner up.)

As "feel good" as this article is, that's not why I really wanted to share it with you. The reason is this last comment from their coach, Gary Farmer:

"... it all starts at home ... (the parents) raised a good group of younguns ... I have 12 great kids who have some great parents. They were always 100% behind the kids as well as the coaches."

Just a little reminder of the important role we Moms and Dads play in our children's sports development, sports enjoyment and sports behavior.


Until my next Good Sport (or Bad Sport) post,

Leslie