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Wharton Lands Honor As Top Sports School

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By BILL WARD

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 23, 2008

TAMPA - Highlighted by the Vernon Korhn Award, the School District of Hillsborough County honored dozens of players, coaches and schools at a ceremony Thursday at the district's offices in downtown Tampa.

The Vernon Korhn Award is in its second year but its namesake, who retired as athletic director for Hillsborough County Schools in December 2006, said he thought it was important to honor the county's best all-around athletic program.

Korhn's award entails more than a school with winning teams. The five-person committee that selected the winner also included grade-point averages of each school's sports teams and sportsmanship, which was measured in the number of ejections and penalties those squads received during the past school year, as well as sportsmanship reports submitted by Florida High School Athletic Association officials and referees.

"To me, those are three very major components of an outstanding athletic program," Korhn said. "I think sportsmanship is something people overlook a lot of the time, but we put weight on all three areas."

The Korhn Award went to Wharton, which, besides winning state titles in boys tennis and boys soccer and a state runner-up trophy in girls track, boasted the fourth-highest grade-point average (3.21) in the district and only one player or coach ejection from all sports.

Plant won the honor in the award's inaugural year.

Reporter Bill Ward can be reached at (813) 259-7456 or wward@tampatrib.com.

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