By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information and OVC Media Relations
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech men's golf team collected the Ohio Valley Conference's Team Sportsmanship Award for men's golf, as announced by the league Tuesday morning, the team's fourth time securing the honor.
The honor marks the second under the direction of head coach Polk Brown and first since the 2012-13 campaign. The purple and gold also claimed the league's sportsmanship award in 2005-06 and 2006-07. The award was not presented during the 2019-20 campaign due to the season's cancellation with the COVID-19 pandemic in its early stage.
"We are honored to accept the OVC sportsmanship award," Brown said. "Golf is a game built on integrity and respect, and to receive this award illustrates how highly the rest of the OVC thought of our players and our program. The guys were a joy to coach all year and this shows our playing competitors thought the same when they were grouped with us."
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. That is quite a compliment as those are all traits that will lead to true victories throughout the course of life."
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.
"I am very proud of our men's golf program for representing Tennessee Tech University with the type of sportsmanship we want all of our programs to display every year," Tech Director of Athletics Mark Wilson said. "[Head] Coach [Polk] Brown continues to oversee our men's golf team with a great sense of class and professionalism. Congratulations are in order for him, [assistant coach] Amanda Smith, and each of our student-athletes for their dedication to sportsmanship and earning this award."
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.
Photo by Emily Armstrong
