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

I'm confused.

 

“If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins most? I'd say Flippy - wouldn't you? You'd be wrong, though. It's Hambone.”

 

We take top finishers from the district XC meet, so we've had kids make that team six straight years. I think it's a little different for the "major sports" out there.

My predecessors never put underclassmen on the team, which I thought was unfair. They'd have to be the BEST juniors around to get a sniff of the team. Then I come around and rip that idea up. I wanted to reward the top players for the seasons they had. One year we had a junior pitcher have a great year and get a D1 deal out of it, but the old guy didn't put him on the team. He had a crappy senior year and didn't make the team. Unfair to the kid.

Perfect case in point happened last year when I put a sophomore on the team and it turned out the next year he took off for prep school. Now he's looking to get picked in the first few rounds in the MLB draft next year. If that kid "makes it", I wouldn't have felt right if he gets a big league deal, but he wasn't good enough to be on our All-Area team. Especially after he pitched his team to a state title.

 

An all-area team should be about the kids who have the best seasons. End of story.

Just being the most talented shouldn't get you a spot. I've seen plenty of talented kids that could crush everyone rest on their laurels and do absolutely nothing and/or get lazy for a season.

In the spring, this is even more common as a lot of our seniors, with graduation, start slacking off. If you're making a team based strictly on ability, that's one thing. But, if you're trying to highlight the best individual performances, it shouldn't make a damn bit of difference if the kid plays for Large School A or Small School B.