Fall Sports Banquet // Sportsmanship

At the end of each sports season, Woodward Academy recognizes its athletes with a banquet filled with catered food and awards. On Wednesday, the football and cross country teams were honored in front of the entire student body. The football team announced that Darius Scott-Crayton was selected as a part of the 1st Team All-District Team with four players making the 2nd Team and two additional being honorable mention.

In his final comments, Woodward Academy's Athletic Director, Cade Iversen, talked about the Knight's sportsmanship. Based on a 1-4 rating, the high schools in the state of Iowa are assessed a number that indicates their character on the field. The average across the state is about a 2. For Woodward Academy, we averaged 1.17 among all sports.

Some people think that sportsmanship is important, but a novelty award at best. At Woodward Academy, it is something that we highly value because it reflects who we are and what we strive to do as a school. Each coaching staff has a goal to produce not only solid athletes, but to build character in those athletes. Without character, Woodward Academy would not have sports. Years ago when WA was building its athletic program, there was some opposition from members of other communities when our teams would compete against their school… and that's understandable. But over the course of the past 5 years, we have broken down those barriers and now parents and schools welcome us into their schools. At every event, we compete hard and at a lot of them come out victorious. When it is all over, the parents of those schools thank our kids for playing and wish us luck in the future. In the process Woodward Academy is no longer a school for juvenile delinquents. This is because of our students character and our 1.17 sportsmanship rating that we will continue to take seriously.