’Breds baseball team picks up OVC honor

BRENTWOOD — Murray State University is the recipient of the 2011-12 Team Sportsmanship Award for baseball, the Ohio Valley Conference announced earlier this week.
Voted on by the student-athletes and coaches of the respective sports, the team awards are bestowed upon the 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.”
The 2011-12 school year marks the seventh year the team sportsmanship honors have been awarded. This marks the third award for the Thoroughbreds program who also earned the honor in 2006 and 2009.
This season Murray State was 23-33 overall including a victory over No. 2-ranked Kentucky during the final week of the regular season.
“I am happy for our student-athletes to accept the OVC Sportsmanship Award,” said Murray State head baseball coach Rob McDonald. “I am proud of the young men we have in our program on and off the field. They represent Murray State with class. I appreciate the other coaches and players selecting us.”
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.

Published in The Weakley County Press 6.21.12

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