Murray State University Athletics
MSU Baseball Earns OVC Team Sportsmanship Award
7/15/2009 3:30:00 PM | Baseball
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.
"The Ohio Valley Conference puts a great deal of value on sportsmanship and respect for your opponent,” said Brad Walker, Interim OVC Commissioner. “Student-athletes are the most visible representatives of their institutions as well as the OVC and we have high expectations on them to show sportsmanlike behavior. The OVC Sportsmanship Award winner should take pride in being honored by their peers as the program that exemplifies the league's commitment to sportsmanship."
The 2008-09 school year marks the fourth year the team sportsmanship honors have been awarded. Murray State won the inaugural award in 2005-06.
This season the Thoroughbreds finished second in the OVC (13-8-1) and compiled an overall record of 34-21-1. Along the way Daniel Calhoun was named OVC Pitcher of the Year and became the program's first All-American.
“It is a great tribute to the guys in our program,” said Rob McDonald, Murray State head coach and 2009 OVC Coach of the Year. “These awards are about the guys and the fact they embrace the things that we want them to do and the type of people we want them to be. I am just real gratified that the people in our league voted us for this award.”
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.
