By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

SUWANEE - Troup American coach Perry Prather considered it a successful week for a lot of reasons.

No. 1, his 9-10-year-old all-star team made an inspired bid to win the Dixie Youth Baseball state tournament, advancing all the way to the championship series before falling to Perry.

Also, the Troup squad found out during the awards ceremony following the championship game that it had won the sportsmanship award, given to one of the 16 teams represented at state.

That award, Prather said, “means a lot” and that’s it’s based on a number of criteria, including “parents, kids, coaches, picking up trash, picking your mess up, not fussing, things like that.”

In past years as an all-star coach, Prather said he has set out with a goal of winning the sportsmanship award.

He had the same goal this year, and he said it didn’t require any effort on his part to get everyone involved with the team to show the kind of sportsmanship necessary to win it.

Before, he said, “I worked hard to get that sportsmanship award. This year, I didn’t have to work, it just happened.”

After Saturday’s loss to Perry, Prather said one of the umpires came to him and said he’d “been calling Dixie for 16 years, and y’all are the best team as far as parents, coaches and sportsmanship that I have ever seen. And that was a 16-year veteran umpire. I’m real proud of that.”