Irvington HS receives NJSIAA Sportsmanship Award

IRVINGTON, NJ — Irvington High School athletic director Dr. John Taylor announced that IHS has received the 2018-19 New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Sportsmanship Award.

IHS was voted by fellow Super Essex Conference schools as the award winner.

“On the NJSIAA website, there are winners dating back to 1987, but I’m told by some others the award predates that,” said Taylor in an email to the Irvington Herald. “Regardless, I can confirm this is the first time in school history that Irvington High School has been the recipient of this honor. The award is given to a school’s athletic department based on the sportsmanship-related performances of all their sports programs.”

To qualify for the award, teams must be selected by the athletic directors within their conference. During the selection process, athletic directors are asked to consider the following when selecting a winner:

• Sportsmanship forms submitted by head coaches as part of their end-of-season report. The sportsmanship forms ask coaches to pick three schools they competed against who exhibited a high level of sportsmanship during games/meets/matches.
• How well a school hosted a visiting team (i.e. clean locker rooms, were the teams greeted by school officials, was water provided, did security stop unnecessary heckling, were fans of the visiting team treated well).
• Were the visiting team’s band, dance team, and/or cheerleaders greeted. Were the home team’s cheerleaders/dancers and/or band respectful towards to visiting team.
• The school must have less than combined three-player disqualifications for  unsportsmanlike conduct among all athletic programs for the entire school year.

After reviewing the end-of-season forms, the athletic directors of the SEC named Irvington High School one of its 2018-19 NJSIAA Sportsmanship Award winners. The NJSIAA will provide a large banner to Irvington High School to acknowledge this accomplishment in November.

Taylor has been the IHS athletic director since 2017.