Demopolis High School added some hardware this football season after being given the Florey Dow Sportsmanship Award by the Central Alabama Football Officials Association.

The award is based on a number of factors and is based on a cumulative score tallied from individual ratings of officials over the course of a season.

“It starts from the time the officials come into our gate to the time they leave,” Demopolis High School head football coach Tom Causey said.

Officials rate everything from ticket takers to parking people to the facilities themselves, even taking into account the hospitality and sportsmanship of fans, coaches and players.

“It’s a credit to our school and community,” Causey said.

“From the parents who do the parking to the Quarterback Club who takes care of the officials by getting them food and securing their parking.”

“It emphasized the fact that we have worked so hard training our students and our town and our community about sportsmanship and how we treat people,” Demopolis High principal Leon Clark said. “It is the referees that vote on this. That tells you a lot about how the officials see Demopolis in terms of sportsmanship.”

Demopolis won the award with a 99.75 score out of a possible 100. DHS was compared against approximately 85 schools in Class 4A through Class 6A.

“It is really our program and the entire City of Demopolis that is judged here,” Causey said. “To me, it is huge because you can make the point to your athletes that somebody does notice and that character still does count.”