It was a quiet drive to Goshen tonight as Cameron and I road together to the fall sports awards program at Bethany. While riding he and I spent some time talking about the gifts that the team got for Matt and Daniel and on the season in general. I took advantage of the drive to also give Cameron our thoughts on awards. We have never emphasized winning an individual award in any sport and this season was no different. Cameron had had a wonderful tennis season and that was what he would always remember. He agreed instantly and except for the rain we both felt really good going into the chapel.
The first item on the agenda was a recap of the fall sports highlights. Bethany had done very well with a tournament win in tennis, conference wins in four other sports and two sectional championships in soccer. As soon as Gary was finished talking about those accomplishments, Matt was called up to hand out the sportsmanship award for tennis. Matt gave a nice speech about how the team chose the person for this award emphasizing leadership and being a role model for other players. Doug and I were surprised and thrilled when Cameron's name was called. Cameron was very proud of the award as it was the one that Bethany sports valued the most. He was even happier when he realized that he was the only one of his siblings to win the sportsmanship award. Being the youngest of four makes it hard sometimes to be the first in anything.
After all of the sportsmanship awards were handed out, the athletic director recognized the all conferences winners and the academic winners. Boys tennis was the only team to not have conference recognition as none of the other schools had a team. Matt said that it made each one of his players "All-Conference" then. The tennis team did earn a special honor, however, as they were named an academic all state team with Cameron receiving individual academic all state honors as well.
The second half of the awards program was held in Matt's room where he talked about the season and handed out "individual awards" to each member of the team. His speeches about the players were very nice as well. The night ended with actual individual awards. We were once again completely surprised when Cameron was named co-MVP. His doubles partner, Breece, was also given the award. It was very nice to see them both recognized for their hard work this year as well as the leadership that they provided for the team. The last "award" of the night was given to Matt by Cameron. He named him the #1 coach of the year. The team had all signed a jumbo tennis ball for him and gave him gift certificates for dinner at Oasis and Goshen Brewing Company. Cameron also had a card with gift certificates for Daniel, making sure that he knew that he was the #2 coach. Everyone enjoyed the joke. Overall, it was a wonderful celebration of a fantastic tennis season.
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