This year’s recipients of the IGHSAU Sportsmanship Award from North Tama include bottom row, left to right, Brody Stoneking, and Anthony Dudys; second row, left to right, Hannah Borah, Elijah Fuller, Trustin Lefever, and Tyler Bjorndal; third row, left to right, Sponsor Keith Kennedy, Brandon Ewoldt, Alex Meggers, Nic Hinrichs, Landon Kucera, Jaxen Daniels, and Sponsor Levi LaRue. Not pictured Johnathan Cochran and David Yuska. Contributed photo

Each year the IGHSAU asks the 40 qualifying state tournament schools to nominate a community member to be honored with a certificate prior to their first match of the tournament series. This recipient should be a community member who exemplifies positive sportsmanship in support of the nominating team. The IGHSAU donates a $250 scholarship check to each school to be given to one or more female students toward their post-secondary education.

This year Head Coach Channing Halstead and the North Tama Volleyball Team choose their peers the North Tama Tech Team, along with their sponsors Levi LaRue and Keith Kennedy as their nominees. Coach Halstead said, “This is a new program at our school (in its third year) that has gotten many kids involved with extracurricular activities that typically haven’t been, and these two “sponsors” volunteer SO MANY hours live streaming our school’s events and working with the kids. We are just thankful and wanted to recognize them for all the hours they put in for not only volleyball but all the other activities as well.”

Sponsors Levi LaRue and Keith Kennedy were special guests at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse on Tuesday and were introduced prior to the start of the first match. The North Tama Tech Team has worked to provide real life skills to its team members and expose them to potential career opportunities post-high school. Team members run the camera and computer scoreboard during the live streams as well as create some of the graphics for advertising and player recognition you see on the stream.

Jeromiah Bliss, North Tama Secondary Principal had this to add, “We are very excited about what the Tech Team has been able to accomplish. We are thankful for the overwhelming support of the businesses in the northern Tama County area and the North Tama supporters from across the country who tune in on a regular basis. Keeping the community connected to our youth and their activities is very important to us and honoring these kids and their sponsors with this sportsmanship award is a great opportunity to showcase what all of our young people are up to.”