Yankee Volleyball Association

Rick Pierce Sportsmanship Award Winners

Unfortunately, while driving home from the NE Regionals in 1987, Rick's car was struck by a drunk driver. In a split second, New England volleyball lost one of its greatest assets.

The Rick Pierce Award goes annually to one man and one woman who exemplify the characteristics that made Rick so special:

* Great sportsmanship
* Respected player
* Volunteers time to the sport without need for compensation or recognition

Current Winners

Male Recipient

This year's male Rick Pierce recipient has played many roles over the years in promoting volleyball and Yankee throughout New England. As a player, he is a noble competitor, as well as great fun to play with or against. He has his own special brand of humor that helps to ease the most intense of moments.

He is probably known just as well for his work off the court. For the last several years, he has been tireless in his efforts at photographing various teams and players at Nationals, creating training videos for refereeing and generally making himself useful to Yankee and the volleyball community on a whole. Most importantly, he was the brain-child behind the creation of something that I know hundreds of us feel we could not live without -- the Boston Area Volleyball Players Listserve ­ fondly know as the BAVP.

For all this and more, we are very proud to present Joshua Wachs the 2008 male recipient of the Rick Pierce Sportsmanship Award.

Female Recipient

This year's female recipient of the Rick Pierce Sportsmanship Award has been active in Yankee for over 15 years. During this time, she has contributed countless hours organizing, running, and mentoring various levels of a particular women's club team. She has worked diligently over the years to become an extremely solid and valuable team player, and her positive attitude, good humor, and mental toughness make her a particularly supportive teammate.

In addition to supporting her own teammates, she is always kind, accommodating, and encouraging to opponents in her acknowledgment of good volleys and positive attitudes on the other side of the net. She is gracious in victory as well as in defeat, although her competitive nature does shine through when she gives you the congratulatory hug for your win, but promises, "Until next time..."

It is though diligent efforts and attitudes similar to hers that keeps the Yankee family growing at all levels.

We are very proud to present Darcy Duke as the 2008 female recipient of the Rick Pierce Sportsmanship Award.

Past Winners

(A award recipient may win the award only one time):

Last Update: Thursday, January 29, 2009

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