ara-sports-award-logoDo you think as a society not only here in Rockford, Illinois but around the country that we put too much focus on negative sports incidents that occur and not enough on positive sportsmanship? This is something I believe we all should think about and the ARA agrees.

The Awards and Recognition Association (ARA) is urging all of us here in Rockford as well as the entire country to make a conscious effort to promote positive sportsmanship and put less emphasis on the relatively few negative sports incidents that get passed around the media and the Internet like wildfire. I have to agree with them and I think it warrants a closer look…

Awards and Recognition Association Puts College Football on High Alert: Show Sportsmanship Not Trash Talking and Tempers

The Awards and Recognition Association (ARA), founder of the National Sportsmanship Award, today expressed concern over the recent college football incident with University of Oregon and Boise State players displaying deplorable sportsmanship — all caught on tape and now being relived on countless viral websites.

The ARA urges the public and media to not share such negative displays and focus instead on the more common and frequent incidents of positive sportsmanship that are often overlooked. The incident of negative sportsmanship — physical and verbal — is reflective of a trend that was identified in the ARA’s Annual State of Sportsmanship survey, fielded by TNS Worldwide earlier this year. Unfortunately, for the fourth year in a row, the vast majority of Americans believe that sportsmanship is worse now than when they were growing up. More than 85 percent of Americans think sportsmanship is worse now than in previous years.

Tips for fostering positive sportsmanship, created by ARA’s panel of collegiate coaches, are available at www.arasportsmanshipaward.com.

“What happened with the Oregon and Boise players was lamentable, but it is not by any means representative of the vast majority of athletes who participate in organized sports,” says former Brigham Young University Head Football Coach LaVell Edwards, who chairs the selection committee for the ARA Sportsmanship Award.

“As a coach, I saw up close the character of the players on my teams and those of our opponents. Believe me, the good far outnumbered the bad. There are plenty of positive role models. The ARA Sportsmanship Award gives us an opportunity to shed a bright light on exemplary incidents and athletes.”

To further sway the negative trend and encourage good sportsmanship among athletes, coaches and parents and teach sportsmanship at all levels, ARA has recruited some of the most renowned coaching legends to a blue-ribbon panel that rewards NCAA Division I College Football sportsmanship standouts with its national sportsmanship award.

Past ARA Sportsmanship Award winners include: Carolina Panthers, DeAngelo Williams in 2005; St. Louis Rams, Brian Leonard in 2006; Washington State University’s Alex Brink in 2007 and Northwestern University ‘s Eric Peterman in 2008.

“There is no better time than now to acknowledge the good sportsmanship exhibited every day by college football players,” said ARA President Glenn Beckworth.

For more information on the award, visit www.arasportsmanshipaward.com.



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