Robbie Sabadoz Earns Co-Male Sportsmanship Award from Northeast-10

NORTH ANDOVER, MA – Robbie Sabadoz (Ottawa, Ontario) was honored as the Northeast-10 Co-Male Sportsmanship Award winner at the Conference’s annual end of the year award banquet in Mystic, Conn.

Sabadoz shares the award with New Haven senior James Hilaire.

The sportsmanship recipients will be forwarded as the conference’s nominees for the NCAA Sportsmanship award. The NCAA will select a male and female winner from each of the three divisions as finalists, and then one male and female will be selected as the NCAA Sportsmanship Award winners.

On September 24, Hilaire was critically injured when Sabadoz accidently collided with him on a breakaway. The collision sent Hilaire to the emergency room and to intensive care with his life in critical condition and left much of his right side paralyzed.

Since the night of the accident, Sabadoz has tried to put the event behind him and help Hilaire at the same time. He organized letters of support from his team and the Merrimack community that were sent to Hilaire and his family. Sabadoz worked with his head coach Tony Martone to set up a reunion meeting which occurred in mid-February. Both Hilaire and Sabadoz, along with their head coaches met at a Worcester-area restaurant. The two shared stories about their experiences since the accident and even found two dinner specials on the menu (the ‘New Haven’ and the ‘Merrimack’).

Sabadoz and Hilaire continue to keep in touch through phone, email and text messaging. They met again on April 25 when the Merrimack men’s soccer team went to New Haven to play in a tournament.

Sabadoz led Merrimack in scoring as a freshman and was named to the all-rookie team for his efforts. An excellent student despite a tough first year on and off the field, he was named to the Merrimack Athletic Department Honor Roll.

Each year, the Northeast-10 honors a male and female student-athlete that have demonstrated one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, unselfishness, respect and responsibility.

Le Moyne College senior Justine Ravas earned the Female Sportsmanship Award.