All-Area (or county, etc.) teams

[spnited]

always picked the teams ourselves. it's the "Podunk Press" All-Area team. not the "Podunk Area Coaches" All-Area Team.

The paper I used to work at, it actually was the Coaches' all-area team.

We run the All-County teams with the disclaimer that the teams are selected by the county coaches associations...not us.

 

[jlee]

always picked the teams ourselves. it's the "Podunk Press" All-Area team. not the "Podunk Area Coaches" All-Area Team.

The paper I used to work at, it actually was the Coaches' all-area team.

We run the All-County teams with the disclaimer that the teams are selected by the county coaches associations...not us.

Same here. Too few bodies in my shop to hassle with it.

 

[Tom Petty]

the last place i was at, we had something like 60 high schools in three states. the prep wrestling guy headed up putting the team together. any person who had anything to do with prep sports met -- including part timers -- and they created the team. the prep wrestling guy had final say since he, you know, covered the damn sport all season long ... but he gained plenty of good info from other staffers. it was that easy.

coaches have agendas. they should have zero input.

 

[Mark2010]

Unless you are a metro paper that covers a ton of different leagues, having one's own all-area team is redundant and retarded. Take a look at your list (any sport) and compare it to the all-league teams selected by the coaches. Notice a lot of similar names? Yeah, I thought so.

Again, if you have 20 leagues to cover, it might be a worthwhile project for someone to do on their furlough week. You comb the all-conference teams and basically go from there.

Once I worked at a place that covered basically three small conferences, all of which overlapped with another paper's circulation area. New SE comes in and wants to make a splash, so decides to do "The Podunk Herald's All-County Team". Basically, a rewrite of the all-conference teams that came out two weeks earlier, only deleting kids from schools outside OUR county.

His logic was it promoted the paper and gave the kids some extra publicity. Problem was, by the end of the season, we had run way too many stories (gamers, features, etc.) on these kids already and everyone knew who they were, their stats, their life stories, etc. So it was just rehashing old material and eating up space that could have been devoted to more noteworthy matters.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

One of our All-Area teams (wrestling) came out today and there was some questionable voting done by the coaches (as there almost always is when it comes to this stuff).

Some state placers didn't get on either team (first, second and honorable mention), while others were at least honorable mention. A (former) parent who now serves as a volunteer coach at one of our schools e-mailed me today asking why some kids made the team and some didn't.

I told him that's how the coaches voted, and that's how it's always been for these teams.

My question is, is there a better way to handle All-Area stuff? How does your paper handle?

Take everyone's votes, but identify the few objective and knowledgeable coaches and apply your own vote.

Don't ever just add up coach voting and let it stand without making sure some horse**** hasn't happened.

We have a private school that wins everything every year and coaches from the poor private schools try taking it out on these kids every season.

 

[I Digress]

we take nominations... but we do the choosing.. in fact, it's a gigantic pain in the ass....before I started doing it, i figured the staff in general chose.. nope, whatever writer is doing a particular team, picks it....there's one guy on staff, been on a million years, if you don't 'check' with him, he ******* about what you do.. if you do check with him, he never has any advice to offer.....

 

[KYSportsWriter]

The only problem with wrestling, though, is I'm usually the only staffer who covers meets/matches/tourneys/etc., so our staff voting for wrestling is out and I don't want to be the only one voting.

 

[doubledown68]

Coaches send in nominations and stats... who is on the team is completely our decision.

 

[williemcgee51]

I am my shop's wrestling writer and I chose the team myself. We do a metro and area team. I gave co-Wrestlers of the Year to both the metro and area because two from each category won titles -- in fact, both metro wrestlers were undefeated. I chose the teams based on state qualifiers, then the rest on regional and sectional champions. In my opinion, wrestling is one of the easiest sports to pick because the best individuals are determined on the mat.

 

[Tom Petty]

Unless you are a metro paper that covers a ton of different leagues, having one's own all-area team is redundant and retarded. Take a look at your list (any sport) and compare it to the all-league teams selected by the coaches. Notice a lot of similar names? Yeah, I thought so.

Again, if you have 20 leagues to cover, it might be a worthwhile project for someone to do on their furlough week. You comb the all-conference teams and basically go from there.

Once I worked at a place that covered basically three small conferences, all of which overlapped with another paper's circulation area. New SE comes in and wants to make a splash, so decides to do "The Podunk Herald's All-County Team". Basically, a rewrite of the all-conference teams that came out two weeks earlier, only deleting kids from schools outside OUR county.

His logic was it promoted the paper and gave the kids some extra publicity. Problem was, by the end of the season, we had run way too many stories (gamers, features, etc.) on these kids already and everyone knew who they were, their stats, their life stories, etc. So it was just rehashing old material and eating up space that could have been devoted to more noteworthy matters.

publicity and retarded. nice.

 

[Some Guy]

I would never let coaches vote for my paper's All-Area team. Pick them yourself. I might take nominations from coaches, and I might call a couple of them I explicitly trust to get some info that might be helpful ... but in this case, democracy sucks. Be a dictatorship. Pick your own.

 

[Sam Craig]

I would never let coaches vote for my paper's All-Area team. Pick them yourself. I might take nominations from coaches, and I might call a couple of them I explicitly trust to get some info that might be helpful ... but in this case, democracy sucks. Be a dictatorship. Pick your own.

I agree. I always knew the top players on all the teams (22) in the county and the challenge was to figure who goes on first, who goes on second and who goes on HM. The coaches knew the top players on the teams they played but not the teams they didn't play. So I'd ask for nominations to see how they ranked their own players and ask them for their thoughts on other teams (although many coaches wouldn't name players from tother teams). I always had a basic idea, so most of the teams, depending on the sport, would be set. For any questions, I always knew what coaches I could trust who knew all the players and could also be fair.

I've been to meeting where coaches voted on an area team, and I saw how uniformed or petty some coaches could be. For instance, the coach of a softball power nominated his first baseman for first team but didn't expect her to win. She ended up with the votes because some coaches who didn't know the players voted for the player because she played on the best team. After one vote, I heard a coache say that he wouldn't vote for players on another team because that coach wouldn't play him.

I always wanted the coaches' input but since we were saying it was our paper's team, I always had the final say-so.

Wrestling, track, swimminig, golf, tennis and cross country were often easy you could use the results from the county tournament as a starting point for the events or weight classes. Of course, you had to make adjustments but it was a good starting point.

 

[Starman]

Long ago, I worked at a paper which allowed coaches to nominate/elect its All-Area teams. One year, one of the players had the dead-bang best player in the state -- 30 ppg, 15 rpg, etc etc. ended up starting at a high D-I school and eventually playing in the NBA (not for long, but he did play).

Last game of the season, the kid's team lost. Some kind of shouting match in the locker room afterward. At this point I should mention the coach was a cockflogger of long standing -- one of these HS coaches with a runaway Napoleon complex, always moaning about coverage, he'd get in snits and refuse to call in games, etc etc.

A few days later, I call the coach to talk over All-Area. He starts running down the list -- a couple guys all-conference, a couple honorable mention All-State. "Those guys probably ought to be on your team," he says (he was right -- probably his whole starting lineup could have been our all-area team).

I'm waiting for Shaheem Superstar.... nothing.

"What about Shaheem Superstar?" I ask.

"Ahhhhh, I'm not nominating him."

"Hmmmm. Want to tell me why?"

"No."

"He played in every game, did you kick him off the team?"

"No."

"Well, he's obviously the best player in our area, it'll look weird if he's not on the team."

"Not my problem. I choose not to nominate him."

"Well, we're probably going to put him on anyway."

"No you won't. You state right in the paper your team is based on coaches' nominations, and I choose not to nominate him." (He was right again, our SE wrote columns to precisely that effect.)

"Well I'm going to talk to the SE about this -- that makes us look ridiculous."

Our SE at the time was one of the good ole guys who has been buddies with all the area coaches since Jeebus was a baby, and he'd sooner drink flaming sterno before overruling a coach.

"You are aware, aren't you, how idiotic we will look without the best player in the state on our all-area team, aren't you?"

"Rules are rules."

He moved on a couple years later, and I became SE. Just about the first thing I did was ditch the coaches' nominations/voting for All-Area. They provide input and information; that's it. WE pick the team.

 

[Tom Petty]

Long ago, I worked at a paper which allowed coaches to nominate/elect its All-Area teams. One year, one of the players had the dead-bang best player in the state -- 30 ppg, 15 rpg, etc etc. ended up starting at a high D-I school and eventually playing in the NBA (not for long, but he did play).

Last game of the season, the kid's team lost. Some kind of shouting match in the locker room afterward. At this point I should mention the coach was a cockflogger of long standing -- one of these HS coaches with a runaway Napoleon complex, always moaning about coverage, he'd get in snits and refuse to call in games, etc etc.

A few days later, I call the coach to talk over All-Area. He starts running down the list -- a couple guys all-conference, a couple honorable mention All-State. "Those guys probably ought to be on your team," he says (he was right -- probably his whole starting lineup could have been our all-area team).

I'm waiting for Shaheem Superstar.... nothing.

"What about Shaheem Superstar?" I ask.

"Ahhhhh, I'm not nominating him."

"Hmmmm. Want to tell me why?"

"No."

"He played in every game, did you kick him off the team?"

"No."

"Well, he's obviously the best player in our area, it'll look weird if he's not on the team."

"Not my problem. I choose not to nominate him."

"Well, we're probably going to put him on anyway."

"No you won't. You state right in the paper your team is based on coaches' nominations, and I choose not to nominate him." (He was right again, our SE wrote columns to precisely that effect.)

"Well I'm going to talk to the SE about this -- that makes us look ridiculous."

Our SE at the time was one of the good ole guys who has been buddies with all the area coaches since Jeebus was a baby, and he'd sooner drink flaming sterno before overruling a coach.

"You are aware, aren't you, how idiotic we will look without the best player in the state on our all-area team, aren't you?"

"Rules are rules."

He moved on a couple years later, and I became SE. Just about the first thing I did was ditch the coaches' nominations/voting for All-Area. They provide input and information; that's it. WE pick the team.

wow, dog. that story made me grit my teeth. i hope you were able to **** that coach over along the way.

 

[Starman]

yeah, it was pretty apparent after the fact the coach was bent on ****ing over not only the kid, but us (the newspaper) by making us look idiotic.

But the SE, ME and publishers were in the pockets of the local school districts, so the idea of telling the coach to **** off (my personal option) never gained traction. Not only that, in the story, we were ordered simply to ignore the existence of Shaheem Superstar. So one of our first team selections was Sammy Secondbanana, who was "instrumental in Dicksmack High's 28-2 season, averaging 11.7 points and 6.8 rebounds." (Not quite as instrumental as the guy averaging 30-15, but never mind him).

Of course we had to take hysterical raging phone calls for the rest of the school year, "you morons, why didn't you put Shaheem Superstar on the team??"

We did talk to Shaheem and determined that the post-game argument, as we suspected, was about 85% the coach's fault. Coach Bunghole moved on before I took over as SE, as did our ME and publisher. Luckily the new guys were not fixated on ass-licking.

 

[Tom Petty]

yeah, it was pretty apparent after the fact the coach was bent on ****ing over not only the kid, but us (the newspaper) by making us look idiotic.

But the SE, ME and publishers were in the pockets of the local school districts, so the idea of telling the coach to **** off never gained traction.

Of course we had to take hysterical raging phone calls for the rest of the school year, "you morons, why didn't you put Shaheem Superstar on the team??"

We did talk to Shaheem and determined that the post-game argument, as we suspected, was about 85% the coach's fault.

i became the se at a paper where the average guy had been employed for about 15 years, and each one of them loved them some area coaches ... ****ing took story assignments from coaches until i walked in the door.

i made more than one of them cry actual tears because i made them ask uncomfortable questions.

the editor there had no clue what was taking place there until one of the local college's AD's asked that i be fired because i wasn't "pubicizining" their program enough.

it was pretty pathetic.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

With wrestling, I trust all of the coaches in my area because of the rapport I have with them. I don't ... or at least didn't worry until now about them screwing anybody out of a vote. Out of six coaches, five of them will give me an honest-to-God answer if I ask them about a vote.

Before I tallied the votes, I went back and looked at one coach's ballot; one I knew would screw the voting up for the all-area team. I called him up and asked him if he could justify the way he voted, and he went through every kid and did so.

That, I have no problem with. What I do have a problem with is coaches who give every all-area vote to one specific team, like one of our soccer coaches did last year.

 

[Bud_Bundy]

We solicit nominations from coaches, but in no way would they select our teams. From years and years of hearing tales of their all-league meetings, some of them don't give a **** about anything except getting as many of their kids on the teams and screwing certain other teams.

 

[jps]

yeah, it was pretty apparent after the fact the coach was bent on ****ing over not only the kid, but us (the newspaper) by making us look idiotic.

But the SE, ME and publishers were in the pockets of the local school districts, so the idea of telling the coach to **** off never gained traction.

Of course we had to take hysterical raging phone calls for the rest of the school year, "you morons, why didn't you put Shaheem Superstar on the team??"

We did talk to Shaheem and determined that the post-game argument, as we suspected, was about 85% the coach's fault.

i made more than one of them cry actual tears because i made them ask uncomfortable questions.

you make me cry actual tears and you aren't even my boss.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Long ago, I worked at a paper which allowed coaches to nominate/elect its All-Area teams. One year, one of the players had the dead-bang best player in the state -- 30 ppg, 15 rpg, etc etc. ended up starting at a high D-I school and eventually playing in the NBA (not for long, but he did play).

Last game of the season, the kid's team lost. Some kind of shouting match in the locker room afterward. At this point I should mention the coach was a cockflogger of long standing -- one of these HS coaches with a runaway Napoleon complex, always moaning about coverage, he'd get in snits and refuse to call in games, etc etc.

A few days later, I call the coach to talk over All-Area. He starts running down the list -- a couple guys all-conference, a couple honorable mention All-State. "Those guys probably ought to be on your team," he says (he was right -- probably his whole starting lineup could have been our all-area team).

I'm waiting for Shaheem Superstar.... nothing.

"What about Shaheem Superstar?" I ask.

"Ahhhhh, I'm not nominating him."

"Hmmmm. Want to tell me why?"

"No."

"He played in every game, did you kick him off the team?"

"No."

"Well, he's obviously the best player in our area, it'll look weird if he's not on the team."

"Not my problem. I choose not to nominate him."

"Well, we're probably going to put him on anyway."

"No you won't. You state right in the paper your team is based on coaches' nominations, and I choose not to nominate him." (He was right again, our SE wrote columns to precisely that effect.)

"Well I'm going to talk to the SE about this -- that makes us look ridiculous."

Our SE at the time was one of the good ole guys who has been buddies with all the area coaches since Jeebus was a baby, and he'd sooner drink flaming sterno before overruling a coach.

"You are aware, aren't you, how idiotic we will look without the best player in the state on our all-area team, aren't you?"

"Rules are rules."

He moved on a couple years later, and I became SE. Just about the first thing I did was ditch the coaches' nominations/voting for All-Area. They provide input and information; that's it. WE pick the team.

One coach did the voting for you guys?