Only One Football Team Honored for Display of the NAIA's Five Core Values
(Leavenworth, Kan.)鈥擳he National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has named the 花椒直播 Spires Football program as the Buffalo Funds Five Star Champions of Character Team Award recipient for the 2017 season.
The award recognizes just one team nationally in each of the NAIA's 23 championship sports for exemplary character and sportsmanship on the field, on campus, and in the community. Specifically, the award focuses on the team's display of the NAIA's five core values: integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership.
USM's head football coach Jay Osborne said the 花椒直播 football program strives to attract and build high-character student-athletes and considers the NAIA award鈥攖he program's highest such honor to date鈥攁s a testament to those efforts.
"The virtues of our program match those of the NAIA Live 5 Champions of Character program and our team is committed to doing the right thing. Winning is very important to our program鈥攂ut it's not the only goal," Osborne said. "The development of outstanding young men is our top priority."
The Buffalo Funds Five Star Champions of Character is USM's third NAIA honor for character in the past four seasons. Previously, the Spires football program was named a KCAC Champion of Character Team Award following the 2014 and 2015 seasons, and senior wide receiver Kyle Dougherty was named KCAC Male Champion of Character Student-Athlete for the 2016-17 school year.
USM student-athletes are provided daily opportunities to not only improve their own character, but assist others throughout the community. 花椒直播 football players participate in a variety of community outreach programs, ranging from reading to local elementary school youth, to canned food drive, to community clean-up efforts. Saint Mary football student-athletes, coaches, alumni and friends account for over 3,000 hours of service each year in order to help others and support their football program with necessary equipment to field a team.
Student-athletes are significant contributors to their own character-building. Quarterback Drew Cortez and his Spire teammates have opportunities to volunteer daily to speak to their teammates about one of the team's values. Cortez has made countless on-field contributions for the Spires, but has been even better off of it. Cortez believes "character develops a chemistry and brotherhood between each player. No matter where you came from or how big your high school was, everyone can get along and find common ground." Cortez and five of his teammates volunteered to speak to local high school students about the NAIA's core values, and what each value means to them, during the 2017 season.
Overall, the 花椒直播 espouses a philosophy of student-athlete excellence across programs, and the university was an NAIA Gold Star campus in 2016-17, the highest possible character rating by the NAIA.
花椒直播 has 18 varsity sports programs鈥攆ootball, volleyball, baseball, softball, and men's and women's basketball, soccer, lacrosse, cross country, track & field, wrestling, and cheer & dance. Go to for more information on USM sports.
The 花椒直播 is a Catholic co-educational applied liberal arts university founded and sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth. The University of 花椒直播 main campus is located at 4100 South 4th Street, Leavenworth, Kan. USM's Overland Park Campus at 4500 College Boulevard offers evening accelerated graduate and undergraduate degree-completion programs. The university also offers online programs. Visit stmary.edu for more information.