KoMets youth team wins Youth 1st Sportsmanship Award

The Owatonna Huskies Bullpen Club in partnership with Youth 1st, The Walser Foundation, Federated Insurance, Jostens, Pearson, Cashwise, Bennerotte & Associates and the Minnesota Twins Community Fund have selected the Mantorville KoMets Baseball Team as the recipient of a Youth 1st Team Award for their outstanding sportsmanship during the 2017 Owatonna Tournament.
The Youth 1st Team Award recognizes positive behavior from players, coaches and everyone associated with the team (parents, fans and spectators).
“We are placing the emphasis on how you play the game, which is ultimately more important than if you win or lose.” said Mark Arjes, Founder/Director of Youth 1st. “It has become increasingly difficult to get coaches and officials for youth sports because of the abuse that they take during games. We believe it is time to model and encourage values-based actions, creating what we call a Conduct 1st environment where the focus is on the kids, competitive energies are kept in check and officials and opponents are respected.”

The Youth 1st Team Award was created by working with the umpires and tournament directors. The umpire provided a team selection vote after each game during the tournament based on the conduct and sportsmanship exhibited by coaches, players and fans. Teams with a positive selection to game ratio of 80% or higher are recognized as Youth 1st Teams.

Teams are presented with a Team plaque and certificates PLUS tickets for all players and coaches to at- tend and be recognized at an upcoming Minnesota Twins home game at Target Field.
The mission of Youth 1st is to connect Conduct, Charac- ter and Community through values-based youth development. Youth 1st is a 501(c) (3) non-pro t organization founded in March of 2010, headquartered in Owatonna, MN. Youth 1st is an official Playball! MN Partner.