MARION &8212; Demopolis native Jeremy Black was awarded the Judge Irby Pope Award for sportsmanship at the Marion Military Academy sports banquet last week.

The award, on of the oldest given at the college to athletes, has been given out to the athlete demonstrating the best sportsmanship at the college for 82 years. Coaches from the spring athletics, basketball, wrestling and baseball, get together to identify the one player from all three sports that they feel best exhibits the trait.

Black, who lettered in baseball, happens to be a freshman at the school. His coach, Brett Davis, said it is not often that the prestigious award is given to underclassmen at the MMI.

Davis said Black&8217;s performance on and off the field helped him win over coaches and be singled out as the player at the school with the best attitude. Black&8217;s attitude along with his on field performance was enough both to garner the attention of all coaches for the award and to pay dividends on the diamond, as Black was resigned to the team for a second year Thursday.

Black, who is a pitcher for the baseball team, has made enough of an impression on Davis to make his resigning decision rather easy.

Davis said, aside form Black&8217;s attitude, he has talent potential to grow during his final year as an athlete and, if he makes the proper adjustments, play on the next level after leaving MMI.