CHAPEL HILL – Two major awards will be presented to schools
at the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Annual Meeting on May 3
at the Smith Center on the University of North Carolina campus.
Weddington High School is the sixth annual winner of the
Exemplary School Award while Perquimans High School is the winner of the 2012
Sportsmanship Award.
The awards are given as a cooperative venture among the
NCHSAA, the North Carolina Coaches Association and the North Carolina Athletic
Directors Association. In addition to a trophy and a banner for display at the
respective schools, each school receives a $1000 cash award.
The Exemplary School Award recognizes the top overall school
in the state in terms of the “total program,” including but not limited to
athletic success, scope of athletic opportunities offered, facilities,
community interest and involvement, academics and the like.
Weddington, in Union County, has been an Honor School of
Excellence in the last three years and was recognized by Newsweek Magazine
among the top high schools in America. The school had every one of its varsity
teams during the fall and winter seasons of this academic year earn AAA Scholar-Athlete
honors, and all Weddington teams earned team awards last year.
The school offers 24 sports and 36 different teams, and
actually recognizes its own all-academic athletic team at the school. Many of
the teams are involved in community service projects, including Serve for the
Cure, Relay for Life, Habitat for Humanity and a book drive that collected over
3,000 books for a local elementary school.
In terms of its facilities, Weddington has recently resurfaced its track
and tennis courts, was awarded a $5,000 grant from Home Depot to be used on the
softball field, and has had Eagle Scout projects completed on campus to enhance
the athletic complex.
The sportsmanship honor is designed to recognize a school
that has been ejection free, has a plan to promote and implement good
sportsmanship, is welcoming to visiting fans, makes appropriate accommodations
for officials and their own fans demonstrate good sportsmanship.
Perquimans has long promoted sportsmanship and has been
ejection free for over three years. Perquimans student-athletes and coaches
have been involved in the Student Athlete Summer Institutes for many years as
well as attending the Coach-Captain Retreats, part of the NCHSAA student services
program, where many sportsmanship initiatives have been addressed.
This year a sportsmanship public address announcement was
developed and then read before every Perquimans home sporting event, which was
very well received by spectators from both competing schools and game
officials. The school also makes it a point for its coaches to emphasize the
positive values of sportsmanship during practice as well as contests. Michael
Horwat, athletic director at Perquimans, says that the goal is to make "to
continue to make Perquimans a respectful and distinguished school when it comes
to sportsmanship."
The process of selection for both the awards is a
multi-tiered one, including nominations and feedback from schools to select finalists,
and then the finalists submitted applications with specific information
relative to their potential award.
"Weddington and Perquimans have set themselves apart
during the 2011-12 academic year by earning these prestigious honors,"
said Davis Whitfield, NCHSAA commissioner. "We applaud their commitments
in the areas of sportsmanship and overall excellence."
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