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Mystic, Conn. – Le Moyne College senior Justine
Ravas (Oswego, N.Y.) was named the 2008-2009
Northeast-10 Female Sportsmanship Award recipient, while Merrimack
College freshman Robbie Sabadoz (Ottowa,
Ontario) and University of New Haven senior
James Hilaire (Jacmel, Haiti) were
honored as Co-Male Sportsmanship Award recipients. The trio was
honored Monday evening at the Conference’s annual end of the
year awards banquet in Mystic, Conn.
Each year, the Northeast-10 honors a male and female
student-athlete that have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of
sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty,
unselfishness, respect and responsibility. The sportsmanship
recipients will be forwarded as the conference’s nominees for
the NCAA Sportsmanship award. The NCAA will select a male and
female winner from each of the three divisions as finalists, and
then one male and female will be selected as the NCAA Sportsmanship
Award winners.
Ravas was a four-year member and captain of the Le Moyne
women’s soccer team. During her career she appeared in 38
games while starting 25 at defense. She is the President of Le
Moyne’s SAAC program for the past two years and helped
coordinate initiatives to increase sportsmanship and recorded voice
memos to be played at all games to encourage sportsmanship and fair
play.
“As we strive to foster the personal growth of the young
people we come in contact with each day, we are fortunate on
occasion to come across individuals that transcend the normal
definition of "the student athlete",” said Le Moyne Athletic
Director Matt Bassett. “Justine Ravas is one of those
individuals. Justine embodies all of the characteristics and
qualities of an individual who never stops giving of herself. Her
service to our campus, our community, and as the obvious leader of
our student athlete population, is what the conference was
envisioning when they selected Justine Ravas as the 2009 recipient
of the NE10 Sportsmanship Award!”
The past three seasons, the Le Moyne women’s soccer team was
honored with the Northeast-10 Sportsmanship Award. During this
year’s senior day pregame ceremonies, Ravas asked to honor
the Saint Rose seniors as well by giving them all a single white
flower.
The men’s sportsmanship award was presented to
Merrimack’s Sabadoz and New Haven’s Hilaire. On
September 24, New Haven goaltender Hilaire was critically injured
when Merrimack forward Sabadoz collided with him. The collision
sent Hilaire to the emergency room and to intensive care with his
life in critical condition and left much of his right side
paralyzed.
Since the night of the accident, Sabadoz has tried to put the event
behind him, but help Hilaire at the same time. He organized letters
of support from his team and the Merrimack community that were sent
to Hilaire and his family. Sabadoz worked with his head coach Tony
Martone to set up a reunion meeting which occurred in mid-February.
Both Hilaire and Sabadoz, along with their head coaches met at a
Worcester-area restaurant. The two shared stories about their
experiences since the accident and even found two dinner specials
on the menu (the ‘New Haven’ and the
‘Merrimack’).
Sabadoz and Hilaire continue to keep in touch through phone, email
and text messaging. They met again on April 25 when the Merrimack
men’s soccer team went to New Haven to play in a
tournament.
With 15 member institutions the Northeast-10 is the second largest
NCAA Division II athletic conference in the nation. Its 23
championship sports provide athletic opportunities for over 5,500
student-athletes, the largest such program of any Division II
conference.
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