All-area team complaints: How do you respond?

The last few years the complaints from coaches from the about 20 schools we cover and parents had gotten almost out of hand, so we decided to try letting the coaches vote this year. Obviously we had our concerns that coaches would vote in collusion or only for seniors or something like that, but the teams have come out surprisingly close to what I would have picked had I still been doing it myself. At the end of the all-area package, we run a note saying which of the schools nominated athletes, which didn't, which coaches voted, which didn't, and so far I have had only one coach complain about fall or spring sports teams and haven't heard a peep from a parent yet.

 

Here's a problem we run into every season.

As noted, it's impossible to get out to see every school, but there's always one or two schools or teams that never turn in results (generally because the teams stink, but I've heard everything from "you should be here" to "I have to sweep the gym after the game and get home late"). You hate to penalize the deserving players on these teams because their coach is lazy, but sometimes I wonder if its worth the effort, since even if you do pick a couple of their players, they probably won't turn in results next year either.

 

1. Pick only a first and second team, with second team optional.
2. Honorable mention is who you think it should be, not who coaches happen to nominate.
3. Don't take nominations from coaches. Have your staff (and stringers, if they have seen more than one team) vote.
4. If nobody on your staff has seen a team in person (as in HanSenSE's case above), the team shouldn't be eligible. Explain who is eligible, if necessary, in a note that goes with the All-Whatever team.
5. Be polite to callers and know you won't change their mind. Don't even try.

 

I hope this isn't too far off-topic, but how do you handle it if a kid is a legitimate all-star but had a displinary issue during the season and was suspended for a while, not thrown off the team, just suspended for 4-5 games?
Does the kid get on the all-star team or not?

 

If he was good enough, of course, unless your paper has some policy about naming only perfect kids to all-area teams.

 

This

 

I had the principal of an area high school call, Mr. King, about 3 days before the all-area softball team came out. He was wondering ahead of time if he could get the names of players from his school honored so he could prepare an announcement the morning the team is published.

Seemed fine, so I told him. He paused for a second and said "Are you sure you have the right players?" I said yes, why? He said "Well, it's just that you seem to have left out one that may have been the best player on our team."

Who's that?

"Laura King."

He called as the principal of the high school (which he was), but he doubles as the father of one of his students and was really calling because he wanted to see if his daughter was on the team. Then he bitched at me when she wasn't.

I was mildly offended by that.

 

We do an all-area team for every sport we cover. Coaches are the only ones who vote for the cross country, wrestling, golf and track teams. Coaches and our four-person staff vote for the football, basketball, baseball and softball teams.

We ask for nominations from the coaches, and that part goes pretty well. The voting in some sports, though, is suspect, and we've gotten calls from lots of pissed-off parents asking why their son our daughter didn't make the team.

One wrestling parent called me last year to ask why his son -- who made it to the region semifinals -- didn't make the team. I told him it was pretty simple, from what the coaches told me: They didn't want to vote for a kid who lost his cool after he lost in the semis, threw his head gear, didn't shake the other wrestler's or coaches' hands, stormed out of the gym and got DQ'd.

The dad became irate, saying it was my fault his son didn't make the team. I tried telling him I had nothing to do with it, that it was his son who did all that after losing and that all but one coach in our coverage area saw the outburst. The coach who didn't asked the other coaches and me about what happened.

None of what I said mattered, so I told him I "appreciated" the call and finally got off the phone with him. He called back a few days later and apologized.

 

Nope. It's in a different part of our area than I cover; no problems in the past.
The PLAYER who made all state deserved it. Period. No regrets. The other kid is a scorer.

 

It don't think we're talking about "perfect" or worrying about discipline here.

Would you treat an injury the same way?

Depending on the state an sport, that's up to half a season.

I would think if a kid misses more than a quarter or a half a season, it's tough to put him/her on an all-star team.

 

Well, heck, put every kid on every team in your covcerage area on the team. That would sell a lot of papers, maybe ... and render the "honor" meaningless.

 

Had a similar situation when picking the girls basketball team this year. Player transfers from a school on the rise to our area's power squad. Had she stayed at Podunk Tech, she would have been a starter and put up numbers that would have landed her first team all-league and probably on our first team, but was sixth or seventh man most of the season at Podunk High and was second team all-league. She'll end up on our second team as well ... can't make a pick based on "what might have been," have to act on what did happen.