Each year the Garces Holiday Soccer Tournament Director, Mr. Vince Fanucchi, recognizes examples of good sportsmanship at the tournament with the Rick Martinez Sportsmanship Award. Rick is from San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno and is the only coach to have participated in all 27 years of the tournament. Over the years, the award has been given to players, coaches, officials (even a bus driver once) from all over California, but this year's recipients are closer to home. When the tournament had to be re-scheduled, Garces boys' varsity soccer coach Justin Finch offered his JV team as a stand-by alternate team if they were needed and was always understanding as they were moved in and out of the tournament line-up as it was evolving over the holiday. Later, when a team staying over-night asked if they could pick up an additional match on Friday, he graciously volunteered his varsity team in addition to playing his division schedule on Saturday. Caitlin Witwer, our girls varsity soccer coach, was not able to field a team for the re-scheduled tournament because of prior commitments by a number of her players, but she and several of her team members (Maya Amavizca, Ariana Toretta, Aly Flores & Nat Antongiovanni) showed up Saturday and worked all day collecting scores and coordinating field assignments all over the park as the day progressed. Simply put, this year's tournament wouldn't have been possible without all of them. So, with Mr. Fanucchi's special thanks, this year's Martinez Sportsmanship Award was awarded to Coach Finch, Coach Witwer, Maya, Ariana, Aly and Nat.
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