The committee will not be made public and include those who have demonstrated a love for young people and commitment to service. The DeWitt family will have the tie-breaking vote if necessary. Gift cards will be provided and sponsorships will hopefully allow those gift cards to continue to increase.
We understand that most middle school teams do not keep stats beyond scoring & that stats submitted have the potential to be inflated or created. In their nomination, please describe what your player did to help lead their team. The perspective of the administrator or AD is generally team goal oriented & highly valued.
In later stages of judging, in evaluating the relative merits of top contenders, winners are identified and selected based upon a sixty percent (60%) weighting of overall athletic resume (including a primary assessment of the current athletic year) along with a forty percent (40%) weighting of academic achievement and character. In the event of a tie, tied nominations will be reconsidered using the above criteria.
WE UNDERSTAND THAT HAVING A TIE MAY NOT BE PREFERRED BY THE COMMITTEE OR PARENTS. BUT, OUR EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN THAT THE KIDS DON'T CARE & IT ALLOWS US TO SPREAD EVEN MORE LOVE.
We also understand that each school has its own politics & dynamic surrounding their athletic program. The love a parent has for their child and that love will never be matched by their Athletic Director, Coach or Administrator. Mature parents will understand this fact & work with their school to assist with the nomination & then allow the selection process to play out.
For this reason, the committee has been instructed to keep their decision based solely on the objective information submitted. These limits to prevent potential coercion and undue influence in this big yet so small town.
Forsyth Park Fountain has become our preferred venue for its iconic beauty. We have found the first or second Thursday morning in May to be perfect timing for most.
We confirmed early in the process with the Athletic Department at UGA that a gift card award to an Eighth Grader is not considered a recruiting inducement and is not a violation of NCAA regulations. Since then NIL has come into play, kids may soon see the gift cards we present as insignificant.