Sanford welcomes athletes from 17 schools for Southwestern Maine Athletics Association Sportsmanship Summit

BY KEIRA KILKENNY, STAFF WRITER

On Tuesday, Dec. 6, Sanford High School hosted 17 schools for the 23rd annual Southwestern Maine Athletics Association (SMAA) Sportsmanship Summit. Ten student-athletes were chosen to represent each school.

Student-athletes were selected by leadership qualities demonstrated on their sports teams on and off the field.

Students representing Sanford included freshmen Dominique Boles, Matthew Hebert, Brady Boissonneault and Ami Kane. Juniors included Jordan Bissonnette, Jack Sevigny and Hannah Mueller; seniors included Isabella Tremblay, Tyler LeBeuf and Brady Taylor. 

Athletic Director Zachary Lemelin identified these Spartan athletes as strong role models for their teammates, especially the underclassmen, and hoped this would instill better sportsmanship within the athletic program. The intention of this summit is to help student-athletes become even strong leaders and captains as they become upperclassmen and build a better culture in their respective athletics programs.

The theme of this year’s summit was “Honoring the Game”. Lemelin shed light on the meaning behind this year’s theme by explaining, “Many parents and students do not always see or recognize an athlete or official for more than that. It is our hope that through the summit, each of the attendees will go back to their school and continue in a leadership role of spreading what they have learned here.”

Some highlights of the summit’s agenda include team building exercises, two guest speakers as well as participation in creating ‘pamphlets’ to inform parents about having a child in sports.

Mueller states, “I’m really grateful that [Lemelin] chose me to participate in the Summit. It was a really fun and interesting experience since I never really got to know anybody from the teams Sanford plays against. It was a little intimidating at first but once we got started I really enjoyed it. I would definitely do it again and I’m excited to see if we do it again next year.” 

Slideshow photos provided by Zachary Lemelin.