By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information and OVC Media Relations
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – For the second straight year, the eighth time in program history, and the fourth time in the past five years of its distribution, the Tennessee Tech women's golf team collected the Ohio Valley Conference's Team Sportsmanship Award for women's golf, as announced by the league Tuesday morning.
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. The Golden Eagles took home the honor in 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2021-22, as well as in 2014-15, 2009-10, 2007-08, and 2006-07. No other past or current OVC women's golf program has been honored with the sportsmanship award more often than Tennessee Tech. This marks the 18th year the team sportsmanship honors have been awarded, with Tech accounting for more than 44 percent of the honors for women's golf.
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.
"Our women's golf program continues to represent Tennessee Tech University with constant class and professionalism both on and off the course," Tech Director of Athletics Mark Wilson said. "[Head] Coach [Amanda] Smith has continued to build our program in a way that we can all be proud of and it goes without saying that to continue the tradition and reputation that our women's golf team has built with its sportsmanship over the years is nothing short of remarkable. I want to offer Amanda, [assistant coach] Polk Brown, and each of our student-athletes much-deserved congratulations for this great achievement and a thank you more striving to make sportsmanship a top priority."
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 Thomas Corhern
