SPC Announces Inaugural Team Sportsmanship Awards

FWCD’s boys volleyball and field hockey teams (coached by Patrick Powers ’05 and Paige Farris Chisholm ’87, respectively) and Brailey Connor ’22, field hockey team captain, earned Sportsmanship Awards from the Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC), the athletic conference FWCD has belonged to since 1966.

Always committed to the best in sportsmanship as a league, SPC spent the last few years working on a way to honor those individuals and teams in the conference who were particularly exemplary in their respect for the games they played and the competitors they faced. Delayed by the disruptions of COVID-19, this is the first year the honors have been voted on and awarded.

“Brailey is a true team player with an incredible work ethic,”  Chisholm shared. “It is important to her that she helps the team improve together on a daily basis. Her competitive spirit on the field is matched only by her ability to play with heart, hustle and honest effort and that each result be met with an attitude of grace and humility.” 

“The team awards are selected by SPC coaches, which makes this award very special,” noted Leigh Block, Director of Athletics. “Our student-athletes and coaches compete the right way and win with humility and lose with grace -- that other competitors recognize this is very gratifying.”

In a press release on the SPC website, the organization announced the award winners and shared the criteria for the awards. 

The SPC has two Sportsmanship Awards. One SPC Sportsmanship Award is given to an athlete from each SPC school who displays integrity and good sportsmanship. The individual award is presented to one athlete for each season from each school.

Additionally, a separate Sportsmanship Award is given each season to a team that stands above the others in their display of integrity and good sportsmanship during the season. A  Sportsmanship Award is given for each sport in each zone (or 3A/4A, when applicable) to the school with the most votes. 

“I extend my heartiest congratulations to Brailey and to our field hockey and boys volleyball teams,” said Head of School Eric Lombardi. “We love winning championships in SPC. The competition is always quite good; those championships are hard to come by. Whether or not we bring home a championship trophy, the recognition that we were exemplary competitors says a lot about our coaches and our players. All of us can be very proud of these award-winning Falcons being recognized by our peers.”