AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

BIG NEWS FOR GILMOUR ACADEMY

FOUR SCHOOLS TAPPED FOR FIRST “AWARD OF EXCELLENCE” AWARD
Four Ohio high school athletic departments have been selected to receive the first Annual “Award of Excellence” recognition in 2015. The award, a collaboration between the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) and the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (OIAAA), recognizes schools that provide exemplary support and promotion of education-based athletic programming in their school and community.

Recipients of the inaugural award include:
· Gilmour Academy (Gates Mill, OH); Jeff Walrich, athletic administrator
· Kilbourne HS (Worthington, OH); Jeff Todd, athletic administrator
· Ottawa Hills HS (Toledo, OH); Tim Erickson, athletic administrator
· Streetsboro HS (Streetsboro, OH); Randy Tevepaugh, athletic administrator

The focus of the award is to recognize on-going and consistent efforts on the part of Ohio interscholastic athletic departments that demonstrate best practice in the endorsement and promotion of education- based athletic programming. Specifically, this award recognizes schools that demonstrate intentional efforts to shift the culture of school-based sport programs as an on-going process.

Dr. Dan Ross, Commissioner of the OHSAA, Jerry Snodgrass, Assistant Commissioner of the OHSAA and Bruce Brown, Executive Director of the OIAAA issued the following joint statement on the inaugural presentation of the award: “Ohio interscholastic athletic programs have always been considered some of the most exemplary programs in the country in reflecting the value our schools and communities place upon education-based sports. The recipients of the ‘Award of Excellence” have demonstrated a consistent and intentional plan to keep the focus of their sport programs upon delivering life-long skills for all participants and mirroring the educational mission of their respective institutions.”

The OHSAA and the OIAAA believe there are several benchmarks which identify quality, education- based athletic programs:
· School athletic programs are inherently educational
· School athletic programs compliment the educational experience
· School athletic programs enhance the educational mission of the school
· School athletic programs serve as an extension of the academic classroom
· School athletic programs teach life lessons not regularly available in the academic classroom
· School athletic programs have courts, fields, tracks, pools and courses as teaching classrooms

Award recipients will be honored during the 2015 Ohio Boys State Basketball Championships (March 26- 28) at the Schottenstein Center on the campus of The Ohio State University.

For additional details on the “Award of Excellence” criteria, go to: https://oiaaa.org/news/2015/01/06/oiaaa-and-ohsaa-launch- award-of-excellence/