The 2025 Nonnewaug girls basketball team recently placed last in Berkshire League sportsmanship rankings. The rankings were decided by the head coaches of each team. They all voted on which team they think showed the most sportsmanship through the season. Each coach cannot vote for the team they coach. 

Nonnewaug Assistant Principal, Mr. Curtin said, “The Ted Alex Award is a very important award that’s given out by the Berkshire League. It’s named after an incredible man from the Shepaug school district.”

When asked how she felt about the team being last in sportsmanship, Nonnewaug girls basketball player Oliva Penrosa said, “I don’t agree with that at all, because I feel like our team is very kind. We always help up players when they fall over, and I feel like we’re very nice to everyone on the court.”

Curtin said, “We always say win with grace, make sure that you guys are a good sport. There are three categories, in terms of assessment, and that is the parents, the coaches, and the players, and they get a score from one though five, a one being the best, and a five being the lowest, based on how they were when they played the other schools throughout the year. Obviously, Nonnewaug wants those scores to be as good as possible, and we do everything in our effort when they’re bad to change things immediately for the following year.”

Another player, Adelyn Cetrone, shared, “I can’t think of one game where we showed bad sportsmanship.” Another instance where she remembered good sportsmanship was at the Housatonic game. “Our team took a photo with the other team and even grew friendships with them by the end of the game.”

Mr. Curtin also said, “During my time as an athletic director, I could say that I usually put a sentence or two in every coach’s evaluation, whether it was good or bad about the Ted Alex Award and sportsmanship, because it is that important.”

Nonnewaug varsity player Jayda Gladding said, “I don’t think that we should have been first, but I think we should have been higher up.”

In addition, Gladding stated, “Throughout the season, we were always told we had bad sportsmanship–when in reality, it was the other team starting problems with us.”

While getting ranked last, the Nonnewaug girls basketball team argues that the ranking doesn’t reflect their team overall. They built friendships with their competitors and supported their teammates.

They showed true sportsmanship on and off the court. Even though the rankings weren’t in their favor, sportsmanship is how you treat people and not about the score.

Mr. Curtin said, “Hopefully our teams that do well keep doing what they’re doing. And teams that get low scores, just look at it as a kind of way to improve and a way to address something that they might not be noticing or seeing themselves. And for us, that’s what it’s all about: identifying areas of growth and making sure that occurs.”