Picking an all-area team, pt. 134,596

That would be like mixing major leagures and triple A players.

 

That's maybe the strangest thing I've ever heard of in terms of HS sports. Who makes the call on where to place teams?

And if it's based on talent, I'm guessing they realign every year. Ugh. That's terrible.

 

I think they re-evaluate where teams are every couple of years, but there can be wild fluctuations in that time span because of the talent that comes up. Using the high school I graduated from (Chariho) as an example, for a couple years they competed or won the D-2 boys' basketball championship. They won the championship in 2005-06 and lost in the finals in 04-05. They got moved up to D-1 and went 8-10, 2-16 and 4-14, primarily because they no longer had two All-state (IIRC) players. The 4-14 team graduated a kid who might play low-division college hoops, and probably won't replace him well. (As a result, someone told me they're moving back down to D-2 this year.) The girls' basketball team, and boys' and girls' soccer, have all had similar up-down-up-down rides based on their division placements and just the specific kids coming through that year.

Rhody, I think putting exceptional D-2 players on the teams with D-1 players isn't such a big deal. Because of the wacky division RI has, and based on the past success of D-2 athletes at the college level, I don't think the talent gulf is as wide as the AAA vs. MLB comparison another poster made.

 

Ah, the age old question. I HATE all-star teams, but they're a necessary evil to do our jobs.

I cover 70 schools spread throughout three divisions (based on enrollment). One of my baseball coaches this year was politicking for another player from D1 (the highest division) over a player from D2. This coach spent time in D2 and was now at one of the bigger D1 schools and brought up the point that the best player on a D2 team is probably the fifth or sixth best player on the top D1 team.

That being said, I need to spread out the team in our coverage area and while two teams did get two players (of the 13-man team; 12 players plus one MVP). If I was actually assembling a team to PLAY the game, it would be different, but I think the team should reflect the Podunk News coverage area and have a good sampling of players.

What makes baseball easy is the coaches get together and create an all-star team from the area. They pick 38 players and knock it down to 22. I use those 22 players as the basis for my team. I also have a pool of coaches (1-2 from each of the 10 leagues) I bounce e-mails back and forth with.

I used to do meetings, but spring is always the worst because of vacations and summer baseball and things. Plus it became coaches arguing for their own players and going to e-mail allows me to make changes easier.

As far as the team this year, there were 13 players, four from Division 2, two from Division 3 and the rest from Division 1. I do take into account the level of play, but I can't punish a player for where he or she grew up - or if they want to learn a trade and go to a D3 vocational school. While the level of competition is down, I sort of try to take the best players and give them some honor. We also have 12-person "Honorable mention" teams for each division as well.

I only got one complaint call for our spring team this year, and that was a (valid) one from a coach who was upset his player (who was voted No. 2 in the league all-star voting) was passed over for the No. 3 and 4 players in the league (which, admittedly are higher coverage areas for us, but I didn't have access to the league voting, otherwise I would have honored it).

You can never win with these things. But I can recommend keeping the coaches at arm's length (e-mail) during the process to make it a lot easier. You should know who the straight shooters are and the ones who will be an asset to the team. Bend their ears. They saw a lot more games than you did this season and can give you a good idea of if Player A was better than Player B or who meant more to a team's success.

 

I just get with the coaches individually, ask for the season-ending stats and then ask for their recommendations. At one of the shops I worked at, we had the copout approach of just letting the coaches decide, within reason, but I like the cooperative approach.

But that is a two-way street. If you don't furnish me with end-of-year stats and refuse to return my calls, you're going to be on the outside looking in.

An All-whatever team is something that folks obsess over and it's a great way of consuming slow time. Especially when you run All-County Football around Christmas, when nothing is going on. Or June, when All-County Baseball and All-County Softball run.

In my town, two of the players of the year have now been arrested, one of which is going to be doing hard time for a LONG time if convicted. And here's the kicker: both of 'em are female!

 

I'm honestly shocked at how many out there don't just pick the best kids and put em on the team. this is an all-star team. just because it's a big school/readership in your area doesn't mean it automatically gets a bid. at least, it shouldn't.

I guess I just figure I want to build the best team available. if you've got six teams or 60, that's your talent pool. take the best kids at each position and the kids that will best help you win the game with your team. to do otherwise is like advertising your 'game of the week' each friday night and, instead of picking the best game or the one with the biggest implications, touting the one between your two biggest readership areas or a pair of towns where you want to up your sales. if they aren't the best, don't call em the best.

 

I think the debate is, do you take a kid who is better, or the kid who had a better season.
And I think every time, it should be the kid who had a better season. They were the best that year.

 

So will you be naming freshman from D2 to your all star team?

 

Not this year.
But if one hit .400 and it was better than anyone in D1, yes.

 

How do you leave the kid off - he was MVP in finals

 

We've had hot-shot softball and soccer players who were the best in the area when they were in seventh and eighth grade. Hell, there was a sixth-grader at one school in our area who won a state doubles title in tennis this year. Do you keep them off all-area or all-star teams because they're not in high school yet? I don't. If they played varsity and had the credentials, they earned the honors.

 

We had a golfer at one of the private schools make our all-star team six straight years, from seventh grade to his senior year.