Blue Devils Capture Fall Sportsmanship Awards

Nine separate fall season teams at Huntington High School and J. Taylor Finley Middle School have captured Section XI Sportsmanship Awards as voted by competing coaches.

Section XI notified the Huntington athletic office late Thursday afternoon of the honors. The Blue Devils will be receiving certificates for each of the teams this week.

Following every high school and middle school contest, coaches are required to submit ratings of the opposing team’s coaches, players and fans. Section XI compiles the ratings and announces Sportsmanship Award winners on a seasonal basis.

The following Huntington UFSD teams and coaches (in parenthesis) were honored by Section XI:

Blue Devil varsity boys’ golf (Michael Marinello), girls’ soccer (John Walsh), girls’ tennis (Jamie Fishlow) and girls’ volleyball (Todd Donaghy)

Huntington junior varsity girls’ soccer (Maria Canino) and girls’ volleyball (Lauren Blackburn)

Finley boys’ cross country (Jarrad Richter), girls’ cross country (Jarrad Richter) and girls’ soccer-white (Alicia Furman)

Sportsmanship is defined as the “fair and generous behavior or treatment of others, especially in a sports contest” and Blue Devil athletes in every sport have it.

“Among those fundamental values of education-based activities that must be discussed is sportsmanship or good sporting behavior,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which oversees all 50 state athletic high school organizations. “More than winning, more than learning the skills of a sport, a focus on sportsmanship has been one of the defining elements of high school sports and other activities for more than 100 years. Along with maintaining the sound traditions of sports and minimizing the risk of injury, NFHS playing rules encourage sportsmanship, and the first page in all NFHS rules publications includes a statement noting that ‘each athlete is responsible for exercising caution and good sportsmanship.’”