WINONA LAKE, Ind. - For the first time ever, Grace College and Director of Athletics Chad Briscoe welcomed student-athletes from the high schools of the Hoosier North Athletic Conference (HNAC) for a Sportsmanship Summit on Wednesday. "We are pleased to be a part of building character at the high-school level through the Sportsmanship Summit," Briscoe said. "We hope it served as a great opportunity to educate and reinforce character education and to help promote the importance of sportsmanship for each student-athlete." Multiple student-athletes from each HNAC school attended the conference, which was designed to educate student-athletes about sportsmanship and character training in athletics. LaVille sent 10 student-athletes to the Grace Sportsmanship Summit - Erik Bedock, Collin Czarnecki, Brooke Edison, Ava Fuchs, Michael Good, Mikalah Kuskye, London Kwiatkowski, Lucas Plummer, Jonah Skiles and Lily Smith. "It was honestly an honor being there to know that people hand picked us and to know that people looked up to us as leaders on our team," said sophomore Brooke Edison. "It was a great learning experience and to be able to grow as a leader." When asked what she felt that the HNAC Sportsmanship Summit taught her, Edison said, "This sportsmanship summit taught us how to work together as a team. How to be a better leader, discipline and work hard. We had several different speakers. One that I remember was about social media and how you want to make sure that you wait before you press send because different colleges look at what you have one social media. The big thing was to look over what you have and think before you press send. It was really cool to meet with all of the other schools that are our rivals to see them as people and not just competitors." Students from the HNAC high schools spent the day together working in groups to discuss and challenge one another in sportsmanship and character-building opportunities in the athletic realm. They worked in team-initiative opportunities to build camaraderie among the schools in the conference. According to junior Lily Smith, the 10 LaVille athletes were selected by various staff members. "We were told that our coaches and teachers and staff in general had selected us as some of the leaders," explained Smith. "There were five girls and five boys (from LaVille). I feel like we covered what we know, but it was way more in depth. We heard from a 22 year old, and how being a leader doesn't mean scoring the most points or being the best. You can always lead in other ways and in other positions. It was really cool when the guy talked about not taking what we can do for granted. It's easy to complain everyday that you have to go to practice after school. You could put it back into perspective that we need to be grateful that we have these four years of high school." Junior Ava Fuchs summed up the HNAC Leadership Summit The biggest thing for me was being a servant leader. Putting yourself on the line for your teammates. Because you are a team. It is not just yourself. You are not the only one trying to get better. You want everyone else to be successful. We heard that for us, as student-athletes, was being selfless." The Sportsmanship Summit featured sessions from Roger Grossman, Kye Barrett and Briscoe. Student-athletes also took turns sitting on a panel and answering questions in a peer-to-peer teaching environment. Grace has hosted several Sportsmanship Summits in recent years, but this was the first edition for the HNAC schools.