For higher ups in local assoctions- Sportsmanship
 

Hi guys,

For a long time I have wanted to establish a team sportsmanship award in the local HS association I am involved with. We will have one next year.

For those of you who have large associations, or small ones, how do you handle the voting process for a team award like this? Suggestions are appreciated.

My ideas, all with holes:

1. All members vote, regardless of number of times they saw an area team, all get one vote.
2. All members who worked a majority of the teams in an area get one vote.
3. All members who worked a majority of the teams in an area get a vote weighted by how many teams they saw (i.e. you see 8 teams, you get eight votes/points for your choice, you see 2 teams, you get 2 votes/points for your choice).
4. All members get a vote, but then we cut the votes of a team 50% based on # of ejections they have during a season, or we exclude any team with any reported ejection during the season.

Thanks for your help.

Keep it Simple
 

A weighted score is always good. Such as: 2 votes count towards those represented in Conference Play vs 1 vote count for those out of Conference. Just keep it as simple as possible. Easy to understand less confusing and less confrontation.

5. All Certified members get a vote, all Probationary (less than 2 years in association), no vote.

Steve, thought about your suggestion, but No go
 

In the state I work HS in, "probationary" members can work varsity contests, and in my area do work many of them. Hard to leave these guys w/o a vote in this case.

Around here, each school is notified of the date of a "coaches rules interprtation" meeting. The associations rules guru gives a 20-30 minute prestentation on major rules and changes for each season, and answeres questions that the coaches may have. Only those teams whose head coach was in attentance are eligable for the sportsmanship award.

Each member of the association gets 1 vote.

Here, probationary members can certainly work varsity contests (as I did starting in Year 2), but they are not allowed to vote in any meetings until they become certified in their 3rd year.

Democratic Demarcation
 

Have association officers who umpired a lot of games {who know every team character} to nominate some of the top picks from the league {max 6, preferably 2}. To be nominated, the trusted officers must select from a qualifying list of judgment criteria. Keep this poll secret. Then allow all asssociation members to vote by ranking finalist. Ex 1, 2, 3, and 4 where lowest tally wins or assigning points 1, 2, 3, and 4 where highest tally wins. The officers may elect their teams favorites like candidates for office, but then the membership selects the overall trophy winner and 2nd runnerup.

Suggested from lower echelon ;)