Tuesday, January 22 is a day the staff, students and the community of Annaheim will remember for a long while. The senior boys' volleyball team under the coaching guidance of Brian Fleischhacker was presented with the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association (SHSAA) and the Saskatchewan Milk Marketing Board's (SMMB) sportsmanship banner.
Representing the SHSAA was assistant executive director Lyle McKellar.
"The sportsmanship banner was first presented in 1986," said McKellar. "The goal was to recognize teams who best exhibited sportsmanship at provincial championships."
McKellar explained, a committee is established at each team championship. It includes members from the host committee, event officials and an SHSAA representative. How teams react to the officiating, how they win or lose, how receptive they are to the efforts put forth by their hosts, and their general, overall conduct both on and off the court are all taken into consideration. Upon careful consideration, the selection committee makes its nomination(s), said McKellar.
New for 2013 will be the presentation of an additional four sportsmanship banners that will be awarded to teams that have been brought to the SHSAA's attention. These will be teams that, although they did not make it to one of the 10 team championships, did present themselves well at one of the levels prior to provincials.
The Annaheim Senior Boys' Volleyball team competed at the provincial championships held last fall in Medstead.
On the court, the boys met Fox Valley in the gold medal final and came out on the short end of the 25-17 and 25-22 scores. But their efforts were rewarded with silver medals at the championship.
This is not the first time a volleyball team coached by Fleischhacker has been commended for their sportsmanship.
"It is wonderful to be making a return trip to Annaheim," said McKellar.
The new 2012 blue sportsmanship banner nicely complements the 2000 sportsmanship banner.
"Our goal would be to see every school with a blue banner," said McKellar. "It's a pretty lofty goal."
With that, McKellar and local Annaheim dairy producer Dennis Knittig, representing the SMMB presented each player and the coach with an individual commemorative certificate.
After a few words commending the team on their performance, Knittig presented the blue banner to the team's captains Cole Ramler and Jordan Hoffman.
Coach Fleischhacker shared some of his memories of the championship tournament with the audience and thanked all the staff, students and parents for the unwavering support the team received throughout the season.
"This was a great group of boys to coach," he said. "After every play, they would give each other a pat on the back. Sometimes it was for making a good play and other times it was simply to say mistakes happen, let's move on and keep playing."
Fleischhacker noted this was a team that did not get down on each other and more importantly not on themselves.
"People think they can get upset with themselves and it doesn't affect anyone else," he said. "That is so untrue and it was great that none of these boys did that."
Fleischhacker commented that this team may be his last to coach, but then admitted he said that a couple of years ago as well and he was still at it.
"I just love the game and coaching," he said.
The deep-seeded respect Fleischhacker has for his time and the game is genuinely reflected back to him through his team, the students, staff, the "Blue Men" as well as all the other fans and the community.
