As a parent, I have worried that teaching values and character are not always a main goal in today’s youth sports programs. However, I recently witnessed an act of sportsmanship from the Sterling Challand cross country team that made me proud to originally be from the Sauk Valley area.

After the IESA Class 3A cross country sectional meet, a miscalculation in the scoring was found, and my son’s team, Bloomington Evans, was moved into third place, which knocked Challand into fourth. Both teams were allowed to run at the state meet, but the third-place trophy would need to be given to Evans.

During the state meet, all teams were waiting for the rain to pass when the Challand team came into the room in which the Evans team was waiting. The Challand coach explained that the news of the error was difficult for their team to hear, but they respected the hard work our boys had put into the year, and they wanted to personally congratulate us and present the trophy to our team. The boys shook hands, and we took pictures of both teams together with the trophy.