It’s not easy to keep players engaged when the team is losing more than it’s winning.
It’s even more difficult when the team hasn’t won at all.
Dan Overmiller knows all about it. His Dover boys basketball team went 0-22 last season. But no one let the lack of success get to them.
And at the end of the season, while some teams were picking up medals or adding division titles to their banners, the Eagles were winning scholarship money. Money that, in at least one case, meant no student loans for post-secondary education.
Three Dover players split $75,000 in scholarship money last year after they were named the boys’ Gretchen Wolf Swartz Sportsmanship Team Award winners. A pair of York Catholic players split the same amount for winning the award on the girls’ side.
Overmiller said that award means more to him than winning games.
“If we do things correctly, good things will come,” he said at winter media day. “It was a rough year. We had to keep the kids engaged. But getting the Swartz award shows that we are doing things the right way.
“We showed how to conduct yourselves when you don’t win.”
For some players, the scholarship is a supplement. But for others, like Dover’s Nathan Cooper, it will completely cover the cost of his education at trade school.
Tianna Gray told the committee through email that the scholarship allowed her to follow her dream. The former Hanover girls basketball player used the funds to get an undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware.
“Without this scholarship, it would have been very difficult to attend UD,” she wrote. “Please extend my sincere gratitude to the Gretchen Wolf Scholarship Foundation members for helping me pursue my career goals.”
The fund has awarded more than $1.3 million in scholarships since 2001. York-area basketball officials vote for the winning teams at the end of each season after observing the conduct of players, fans, faculty, students, managers, coaches, superintendents, athletic directors and cheerleaders from junior high to varsity.
It was created to honor the memory of Gretchen Wolf Swartz, who was a York County basketball official from 1981-95. Officials created the fund after her death in 1997 to promote and honor the sportsmanship she displayed throughout her playing and officiating careers.
So, keep the scholarship in mind the next time you want to disagree with an official’s call. That complaint might sound good in the heat of the moment, but not saying it could help someone realize their career goals.
Shelly Stallsmith covers York-Adams high school sports for GameTimePA and the USAToday Network. Connect with her by email mstallsmith@ydr.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter @ShelStallsmith.