Bloomsburg's Stephen Grib (left) and the Edinboro's swimming teams are the recipients of this year's PSAC Sportsmanship Award.
Lock Haven, Pa. – Stephen Grib (Vernon, N.J./Vernon) of the Bloomsburg men’s track & field team as well as the entire Edinboro men’s and women’s swimming teams have been selected as the recipients of the 2011-12 PSAC Sportsmanship Award. Now in its fourth year of existence, the PSAC Sportsmanship Award is given annually to one male and one female student-athlete or team that best exemplifies the spirit of sportsmanship and who has demonstrated the values of respect and integrity through a specific action ideally directed toward an opponent.
A nominee must also have represented his/her institution in a positive way during competition and must have demonstrated good citizenship outside of competition by fostering a good public image. The PSAC Sportsmanship Award was implemented by the PSAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) at the beginning of the 2008-09 academic year. Nominations for the award may be made by any personnel of a PSAC school, including administrators, coaches and student-athletes, and the awards are voted on by members of the PSAC SAAC.
Grib, a junior on the Bloomsburg men’s track & field team, is a multi-event athlete who participates in the heptathlon indoors and the decathlon outdoors. At the PSAC Indoor Track & Field Championships in February, Grib placed third in the heptathlon. From the first of the last event in that competition, which spans over two days, Grib shook hands with and wished all of his fellow competitors the best of luck – not in a showy way, but in a genuine way the communicated his sincere admiration and respect for his opponents. On the second day of the heptathlon competition in the 60-meter hurdles event, one of Grib’s fellow competitors tripped on a hurdle and stumbled onto the track, effectively knocking himself out of contention in the event since he would not be able to make up points lost from the fall in the remaining two events. While this may have been good news for the remaining competitors as it bumped some of them up one spot in the event standings, Grib did not celebrate. Instead, he took time away from warming up for the next event of the heptathlon and made his way over to the athlete that tripped over the hurdle to console and encourage him.
The Edinboro men’s and women’s swimming teams and head coach Chris Rhodes reached out to the Bloomsburg swimming teams and staff in a time of need during the PSAC Swimming Championships in February in Mechanicsburg, Pa. On one of the days at the championship, the Bloomsburg bus broke down due to mechanical problems at the hotel as the team was about to depart for one of the nightly finals sessions. The Edinboro bus driver offered to come back and get the Bloomsburg team at the hotel after he dropped off the Edinboro team at the pool. However, Coach Rhodes and the Edinboro team decided to offer the Bloomsburg team a ride to the finals with the Edinboro team. So, instead of making two separate trips, both teams rode together on the same (and crowded) bus to the finals to the Huskies would not be late for the meet. Had the teams not gone together on the same bus in a single trip, Bloomsburg would have likely arrived just 30 minutes before the finals session began, which would have not given the Bloomsburg team enough time to properly warm up for the championship finals.
Other nominees for the 2011-12 PSAC Sportsmanship Awards are listed below.
Lock Haven Men’s and Women’s Track & Field Teams
Mansfield Field Hockey Team
Shippensburg SAAC