Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) is proud to announce the winning schools of its annual Sportsmanship Award, with five garnering the accolades in its 26th year of existence. Beaver, Hampton, Ligonier Valley, Penn-Trafford, and Saint Joseph were all named winners for the 2021-22 academic year.
Three of the five schools have previously received the WPIAL Sportsmanship Award, with Beaver and Ligonier Valley becoming the 68th and 69th different schools to collect the honor. This is Hampton’s seventh award, and the second for both Penn-Trafford and Saint Joseph.
In 1997, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) and WPIAL launched the program entitled “SPORTSMANSHIP: The Only Missing Piece is You”. The purpose of the program is to promote sportsmanship in the schools and to reward those schools that best demonstrate the elements of good sportsmanship.
The selection process was based on the fall, winter, and spring seasons of the 2021-22 school year. Schools were eligible to be nominated through either a self-assessment, by another school, or by an officials’ chapter. The WPIAL Sportsmanship Award Committee then met to discuss the nominees, with a maximum of five schools eligible to be honored for their good sportsmanship.
Winning schools are bestowed with a “SPORTSMANSHIP: The Only Missing Piece is You” 4×6 banner, a PIAA Board of Directors resolution acknowledging their selection, and a distinctive paperweight with the miniature banner embedded inside. The five winning schools will be recognized during the WPIAL Sportsmanship Summit, which will be held at the Heinz History Center and Sports Museum on Wednesday, Nov. 16.