Southwest Minnesota State University was named winner of the 2012-13 and the 2018-19 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Sportsmanship Award.
Sportsmanship is defined as "a set of behaviors to be exhibited by student-athletes, coaches, officials, administrators and fans in athletic competition. These behaviors are based on values including respect, civility, fairness, honesty and responsibility". Individuals associated with the NSIC are expected to conduct themselves with honesty, integrity and fair play.Â
To encourage excellent sportsmanship, the NSIC Sportsmanship Award has been awarded annually since 2008. The award is given to the institution with the highest sportsmanship rating as voted on by the NSIC head coaches and Student Athlete Advisory Committee members. The coaches and SAAC members vote for all conference institutions that they competed against in a given year. Each institution they vote on has a maximum total of 25 points based on the following categories: student-athletes (5 points), coaches (5 points), staff (5 points), fans (5 points) and social media (5 points).Â
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The Elite 90 Award or more formally The Elite 90 Academic Recognition Award Program, originally the Elite 88 Award and later the Elite 89 Award, is an award by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recognizing the student athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average who has reached the competition at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 men's and women's championships across its three divisions ( Division I, Division II, Division III ).
SMSU NCAA Elite 89 Recipient
2014 - Clare Sames, volleyball
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The NCAA awards up to 126 postgraduate scholarships annually. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are at least in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition.
The one-time non-renewable scholarships of $10,000 are awarded three times a year corresponding to each sport season (fall, winter and spring). Â Each sports season there are 21 scholarships available for men and 21 scholarships available for women for use in an accredited graduate program.
All former student-athletes who earned an undergraduate degree from an NCAA member school are eligible to be nominated by that school for an NCAA graduate degree scholarship, regardless of when they received their undergraduate degree.Â
SMSU NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Recipients
2004 - Brendan Rokke, baseball
2013 - Amy Dreessen, softball
2014 - Rachel Patnoe, golf
