Phoenixville, Methacton receive national ethics, sportsmanship award

Two Pioneer Athletic Conference girls soccer teams were among 41 high school boys and girls soccer programs recognized by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) on Monday as recipients of the NSCAA Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award.

Methacton earned the honor for the second straight season, this year with the Gold Award for receiving no yellow cards or red cards over the course of their 18-game season, while Phoenixville earned the honor for the third straight year with Silver Award for receiving just two yellow cards in 19 games.

According to a press release announcing the award recipients, the Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award “recognizes teams that exhibit fair play, sporting behavior and adherence to the laws of the game, as reflected by the number of yellow caution cards or red ejection cards they are shown by referees throughout the season based on the number of cards accumulated divided by the number of games played.”

“It’s definitely something to be proud of a lot of,” said Methacton coach Bret Smith. “It takes discipline and sportsmanship to win something like this, and it’s a good way to represent the school.  Being so few teams got the gold award.  It’s a special thing to be proud of.”

Phoenixville coach Tim Raub agreed.

“This is the third year in a row that we have won this award, and a strong character base is at the very top of the list of our core values of the program,” he said. “It’s one thing to be a good soccer player, but it says so much more when you can play the game well and are recognized nationally for being of strong moral and ethical character on top of it.  It just says a lot about the type of young ladies we have at Phoenixville.”

Gold Award recipients cannot receive a yellow card or red card during the season, while Silver Award recipients may only receive between one and five yellow cards and no red cards all season.  The NSCAA recognizes programs that receive between six and 10 yellow cards and no red cards all season with the Bronze Award.

The two PAC-10 programs, along with Mount St. Joseph’s, were the only three District 1 and PIAA girls soccer programs honored among the 25 girls soccer programs, nationally, named to the list.  Nationally, just nine girls soccer programs earned the Gold Award this year, while 16 programs earned the Silver Award.

The full list of teams honored this year can be found online at http://www.nscaa.com/news/2015/12/2015-team-ethics–sportsmanship-winners.