KANSAS CITY, Mo. – East Bladen High School’s soccer program once again received national accolades for sportsmanship.

United Soccer Coaches announced on Friday the Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award recipients for high school programs competing in the winter and spring seasons. The awards recognize a total of 44 teams across the country for exhibiting fair play, sporting behavior and adherence to the laws of the game.

The Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award is given to United Soccer Coaches members at four levels. Teams honored at the platinum level went an entire season without a player or coach receiving a yellow card or red card. Teams honored at the gold (1-10%), silver (11-30%) and bronze (31-50%) levels are based on a percentage calculated by the total number of cards received by players and coaches divided by the team’s total number of games played.

The East Bladen girls program earned a silver level award for the spring season. The boys program previously earned the same silver level award for the fall season.

“Behavior and discipline is a pillar of not only our program, but in life,” said Jay Raynor, East Bladen soccer coach. “How you deal with adversity and having self-control determining how successful we will be in life.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized, especially for sportsmanship and team ethics,” he added. “These are areas that are important and to need to be emphasized to our youth … it’s a priority and also a belief that is instilled into our entire athletic program b y coach (Patty) Evers.”

Eight high school boys and girls teams received the United Soccer Coaches Platinum Team Ethics Award for completing the entire 2021-22 winter or spring seasons without receiving either a yellow or red card.

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-862-4163 or cvincent@www.bladenjournal.com.