Boys’ Soccer Team Earns National Ethics Award

The Saint Bernard boys’ soccer team is one of only 25 high school teams nationwide to receive a United Soccer Coaches Platinum Team Ethics Award for completing the entire 2022 fall season without receiving either a yellow or red card.

The Saint Bernard boys’ soccer team is led by longtime head coach Joseph Purtill, who was named 2022’s Class S Boys’ Soccer Coach of the Year by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. Purtill has coached the Saints boys for the past 13 years.

"Joe Purtill is a quiet, steady force whose voice is respected on the field,” said Sue Griffin, the school’s athletic director. “As a coach, he exemplifies the meaning of fair play and sportsmanship - his expectations for his players are unwavering. But Joe teaches his teams more than soccer. The greatest trait that he consistently models is humility - one of the values of our Xaverian tradition. The combination of humility and excellence is a powerful one.”

In all, 135 fall season boys and girls teams across the country received either the Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze version of the High School Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award, which recognizes teams that exhibit fair play, sporting behavior and adherence to the laws of the game, as reflected by the number of yellow caution cards or red ejection cards they are shown by referees throughout the season based on the number of cards accumulated divided by the number of games played.

Thirty-nine teams were recipients of the Gold Award, which is awarded to teams with a percentage of cards ranging from 1-10%.

A total of 55 teams claimed the Silver Award, which is given to teams that accumulate a percentage of cards ranging from 11-30%, while the Bronze Award went to 16 teams, which is presented to teams that accumulate a percentage of cards ranging from 31-50%.

Link to United Soccer Coaches Association press release