The BAYS Sportsmanship Award is presented each season to teams selected by the Sportsmanship Award Committee from a pool of submissions received from members of the BAYS community. Winning teams receive special Sportsmanship Award Winner T shirts and have their team picture posted on the BAYS website in recognition of this honor. 

While BAYS expects all of its members to practice good sportsmanship, we believe examples of outstanding sportsmanship should be recognized and rewarded. 

To recommend a team, please go to My Bays | Coach/Manager or Referee | Sportsmanship Nomination 

During the Fall 2023 season, we received numerous nominations from both referees and opposing coaches that described various examples of outstanding sportsmanship.

After reviewing all of the submissions, the committee has selected the following two winners:

• Girls Grade 6 3B:  Watertown Leopards. Coaches:  Jason Highland, Jeremiah Casey, and Pierre de Galbert

Reason for the nomination: The JP coach forgot his credential and only had 8 players. Watertown fielded 8 players and asked the referee team for water breaks for the JP players. When informed that the sole JP coach did not have his physical credential, and that the team needed a credentialed adult at the bench for the game to be official, the Watertown coaches decided amongst themselves that Coach Highland would volunteer to coach the JP team so it would be an official game. Coach Jason did not coach his own team from the JP bench, but he applauded good plays by both teams. He also engaged in conversation with the JP team and coach during the game. Both teams displayed good sportsmanship during the match, but the Watertown Leopards went out of their way to help the JP team. 

• Girls Grade 8 1A:  Medfield Warriors. Coaches:  Timothy Maher, Kenton Doyle, and Michael Zeppieri

Reason for the nomination: Medfield was a class act. Our final game of the season was a well played, evenly matched game with no drama, just soccer. On top of being a clean and respectful game, one of the Medfield players went above and beyond. An unintentional clear landed in the face of one of my players during the game causing her to sit out the rest of the game. The player with the strong boot asked to approach my injured player on the bench to apologize and check to make sure she was ok. She then returned one of the game balls after the game and again wanted to make sure my player was ok. I didn’t realize, until writing this, that the player is the coach’s daughter. Clearly there are good lessons being taught and exemplified so I wanted to recognize this team for their excellent sportsmanship.

The Sportsmanship Committee also recognizes the following team as an Honorable Mention: 

• Boys Grade 5 4J:  Natick Nightmares. Coach:  Susan Simone Kang

Exhibiting and employing sportsmanship is at the very core of the BAYS philosophy: “...to provide an atmosphere of good sportsmanship to encourage all to compete, learn, and enjoy the game of soccer.” Congratulations to this year’s winners. May you continue to be an outstanding example for all of our teams. 

BAYS Sportsmanship Award Committee

Steve Smoller (Chair)
Gesse Faber
Karen Young