Boys varsity soccer by Risley Sports Photography
Competing with Grace
With a tie on Thursday in their game against Deerfield, the boys varsity soccer players extended their undefeated streak to 10 games and improved their season record to 7-0-3. The team has earned recognition, not only for the number of goals they scored, but for how they have played their games.
The Connecticut Valley Soccer Officials Association (CVSOA), which represents 90 area referees, announced on Tuesday that the NMH team and head coaches Charlie Malcolm and Jim Burstein won its 2010 Sportsmanship Award.
CVSOA President Artie Burke III said the NMH players distinguished themselves with their good sportsmanship, laudable play, modesty, and support for each other.
“If they have a question about a call, they ask in a quiet and polite fashion,” he said. “They play like they should, or like any team ought to, and I think they set a great example for soccer in the area.”
Also nominated for the 2010 award were the Deerfield Academy boys team, the Smith Academy boys team, and girls soccer teams from Frontier Regional High School, Mohawk School, and Mahar Regional School. The award has gone to private schools only twice before. Dick Peller and his NMH team won in 1989; Jack Jones, former coach and athletic director at Eaglebrook School, won in 1991.
Coach Malcolm said the award reflected not just the attitude of the current team but the reputation the Hoggers have built over multiple seasons.
“This award represents several years of competing with grace and dignity, and our former players should feel very proud of the commitment to fair play that they helped establish,” Malcolm wrote in an email.
Both Malcolm and Burstein are former soccer players, which Malcolm said helps them see when players need to come off the field and refocus. The captains have also helped team members concentrate on being good teammates.
“The boys on the varsity soccer team know that they are role models,” Burstein wrote in an email. “Not only for the younger players in the program but for all the kids who come down to watch the game.”
NMH uses crews of three referees for games rather than the more common two-person teams—a point noted by the CVOSA award committee members in their letter of commendation. Three referees on the field are able to see and hear more play during a game. Even so, the Hoggers received a very low number of yellow warning cards—only three for the season.
“The number of cards a team is shown does reflect the nature of the sporting conduct displayed by a team,” Burke said. “The fact that NMH incurred only three cards was laudable.”
CVSOA members officiate games for 33 schools in Franklin and Hampshire Counties. Burke said the conduct of the NMH players, both on and off the field, had set the standard for soccer games this year.
The CVSOA will present Malcolm and Burstein with a memorial plaque during their annual banquet at the Northampton Country Club on November 19.
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