Fair 45° F

Home > Archive > Feb 7, 2008

Manhood Award Honors Pine View High Coach
By Katrice Schimbeck
Staff Writer
The first annual Manhood Award honored Coach Vance Casperson, Pine View High head wrestling coach. The award, named after Casperson, will be given annually, and nominations are being sought for the 2009 award. A committee of community citizens headed up by Dale Ure and Gene Neumann are responsible for the award locally. 
The Manhood Award was first conceived by two men living in Richfield, Utah, in 1974: Ronald Hall, a high school religion teacher, and Buck Thompson, a local store owner. The award is given to those who best exemplify the honor and character of true manhood, according to information from the committee.
“We have seen the emasculation of men. Our whole culture says, ‘Be good. Sit down and do what you’re told,’ to enforce conformity. We want them to act like a perfect little girl,” Dale Ure said.
Our culture should not squelch the boldness in a boy’s character. We should embrace the boldness and let them explore those parts of their innate manhood, and that means not always conforming to society, Ure said.
“We want boys to witness and emulate bold men,” he said.
According to information from the Manhood Award committee, the idea of manhood seems to be outdated. Popular culture portrays the modern man as a metro-sexual, who is indecisive, feminine, and dim-witted. He is afraid of challenges, commitment and accountability. The manhood award seeks to honor true men who are courageous, dependable and powerful.
The manhood committee looks for bold men who are a great example to boys in their community, Ure said. In choosing a candidate for the award, the committee outlines several criteria: A true man protects women and children. He promotes the cause of freedom and liberty. He reflects a genuine love for his fellowman. He is responsible and provides for his family. He is virtuous and stands forth for truth. He gently but boldly takes charge when needed. He firmly stands for his religious principles and is modest in body and speech. Above all, he is an example for youth.
Vance Casperson is the first man to be chosen as one who meets all these criteria. The committee also honored his wife, Cindy Casperson, because she is key to the kind of man he is, the award noted.
Ure said if Capserson were paid in attorney fees for all the extra hours he put into working with wrestlers at practices and camps, he would get over $4 million in back pay.
“It was really neat. I hate to be singled out,” Casperson said about receiving the award. “It’s a job that I do, and I love what I do.”
Casperson said he is paying a debt back to society. He had several coaches as a youth who gave him the direction he needed.
“As kids we rebel – some more than others,” Casperson said.
He thinks a teacher sometimes can say things in a way youth understand and that will change deviant ways; whereas if a parent says it, there is less effect. He looks at his own kids and is grateful for the teachers and mentors they had.
“I think it would be awful to raise kids by ourselves,” Casperson said.
He said if youth, especially the wrestlers he coaches, heard a tenth of what he said, he’s doing pretty well. 
Casperson, who has coached over 14,000 matches and mentored hundreds of young men, gets attached to his students and worries about them in his own time.
 “A lot of times, there’s the politically correct thing to do and then there’s the right thing to do,” Casperson said. “I try to do the right thing for kids. Sometimes it’s a kick in the fanny and sometimes putting my arms around them.”
“We want men to start to evaluate real manhood and through service be an example to boys,” Ure said. “It’s that boy who couldn’t sit still in class who threw his body over a girl and saved her at Columbine,” Ure said. “That is manhood.”
The Manhood Committee is looking for nominations for the 2009 Vance Casperson Manhood Award. If you have nominations for the award or want to be on the committee, contact: Gene Neumann, 2356 South 2410 East, St. George, Utah 84790, or Dale Ure, 160 East 200 South, Washington, UT 84780. 

---