MidAmerica Nazarene Baseball Garners Heart Sportsmanship Team Award

For their display of the NAIA's Five Core Character Values of Integrity, Respect, Responsibility, Sportsmanship & Servant Leadership, the MidAmerica Nazarene University baseball team has been selected the 2022 Musco Heart Sportsmanship Team Award recipient for the sport of baseball.

"This award was developed by the Heart Association of Student-Athletes (HASA) and I am proud to see this come to fruition," said Heart of America Athletic Conference Commissioner Lori Thomas. "Under head coach Ryan Thompson, the Pioneers are very deserving of this inaugural award."

This is the first year of the Heart Sportsmanship Team award, as teams are nominated by Athletics Administrators, Game Officials, Coaches, Student-Athletes and Fans.

Here is what the nominators had to say about the Pioneers:

"It starts with head coach, Ryan Thompson. He is always professional, friendly, courteous and even-keeled. He sets the tone for the team and all of my interactions with him and his players and assistant coaches have been very positive. I have never had to warn or eject a player or a coach from that University in over 10 years of umpiring this conference. They behave and show sportsmanship regardless of the point of the game, close score of the game, blowout games, win or loss. Thus, I recommend MidAmerica Nazarene University baseball for the Heart Sportsmanship Team Award."

For the spring season, the Heart will be awarding its Sportsmanship Team award to one team from each sport of dance, outdoor track, men's volleyball, women's golf, men's golf, baseball and softball.

If you would like to nominate a team in the future for the Heart Sportsmanship Team Award, please click here.