The Pine School will continue to build on its strong middle and upper school athletic programs over the next several years. As the program builds one thing will be continuously stressed by all coaches as being the most important element of the program. That one thing is to demonstrate sportsmanship when representing the Pine School. All coaches when awarding their end of season Coaches Award make sportsmanship the number one criteria.

In general, sportsmanship refers to virtues such as fairness, self-control, courage and persistence. The key component is respect for opponents and officials. All Pine School Coaches have been instructed to look for the following facets in their athletes:

1) Full commitment to participation (e.g., showing up, working hard during all practices and games, acknowledging one's mistakes and trying to improve)

2) Respect and concern for rules and officials

3) Respect and concern for social conventions of the game (e.g., shaking hands, recognizing the good performance of an opponent)

4) Respect and concern for the opponent (e.g., lending one's equipment to the opponent, not taking advantage of injured opponents)

5) Avoiding poor attitudes toward participation (e.g., not adopting a win-at-all-costs approach, not showing temper after a mistake, and not competing solely for individual prizes)

If all Pine School athletes can display the above 5 facets, the program will be full of true winners!

Nathan Washer
Athletic Director

DOWNLOADS

- Congratulations to our very own Michael Rhys '12 who was the winner of the 17th Annual USA Today Sportsmanship Essay Contest. You can read his essay HERE .

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2008-03-03-sportsmanship-essays_N.htm

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