Pioneers Presented With Conference Sportsmanship Award

The Department of Athletics at Pacific Union College is proud to announce that the Pioneers were recently presented with the “California Pacific Conference Team Sportsmanship Award” for the 2005-2006 season. The award was presented to Robert Castillo, Director of Athletics, at the annual Cal-Pac Conference convention on August 27, 2006, held at Dominican University of California.

The award is presented to the member institution that displays outstanding sportsmanship and exemplifies the true spirit of the “Champions of Character” program set forth by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). All member institutions coaches vote their top three choices for the team sportsmanship award, without voting for their own institution. Points are awarded for one, two, and three accordingly. The institution that finishes with the highest point total is then presented the award at the Cal-Pac convention held each fall before the start of a new season.

This is the second time, in four years, the Pioneers have been presented with this honor. Pacific Union College first won the award for the 2002-2003 season, breaking the string of Simpson College (now Simpson University, Redding, CA) who had won the award the first three years it was presented. Other than Pacific Union College and Simpson University, Menlo College (Atherton, CA), who won the award last season, is the only other institution to have been recognized with this award. The Cal-Pac has been presenting a member institution with this honor annually, since the 1999-2000 season.

The Pioneers compete in the California Pacific Conference, as a member of the NAIA, in women’s volleyball, men’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, and men’s and women’s basketball. Pacific Union College is one of 10 institutions that make up the California Pacific Conference. For more information on the Cal-Pac or the NAIA and “Champions of Character”, visit www.calpacathletics.org or www.naia.org.