This news item isn't hot off the press -- it got lost in the swirl of football playoffs and other fall sports -- but Minneapolis South has received a national sportsmanship award.

The National Sportsmanship Awards are presented by the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance and the St. Louis Sports Commission. The awards were presented during a banquet in late November in St. Louis.

South was honored for how its Nordic ski team helped Minneapolis Southwest skier Libby Ellis qualify for the section meet. Here's the entry from the National Sportsmanship Award website:

"The Nordic ski team from Southwest High School in Minneapolis was preparing for a sectional in February when the coaching staff recognized a serious problem. Libby Ellis, the team's best and the state's second-ranked skier, had not competed in enough races to qualify for sectionals. To compound the issue further, Ellis was in Norway. Tony Aspholm, the coach at South High School – Southwest's arch rival – learned about Ellis' dilemma and wanted to help. Aspholm organized his team quickly for an impromptu meet with Southwest. This was significant because Aspholm's South High team had competed earlier that same day. The last-minute competition would give Ellis the necessary number of races to compete in sectionals. There was still the problem of getting Ellis home from Norway. Ellis arrived in Newark at 2 p.m. only to find out her connection to Minneapolis had been cancelled. She finally landed in Minneapolis at 9:30 p.m. and immediately headed to Theodore Wirth Park. There, her Southwest High teammates and her opponents from South High stood ready. The competition began at 10:30 p.m. with a temperature of minus 4 degrees. The two teams completed the meet less than 12 hours prior to the start of sectionals. Ellis went on to win at sectionals and qualified for the state meet. Sacrifice is giving up something for something greater. In this case, the South and Southwest teams saw something great in Libby Ellis. Their sacrifice validated her victory; proving that even individual achievements require a team effort.'

HERE'S A LINK to all the award winners, which range from Albert Pujols to the New York Yankees to our own South High. And HERE'S A LINK to the South section, including a nice photo.

John Millea is on Twitter@twitter.com/stribjohn