2011 North Carolina All State Posted

Yep, and many others that deserve it didn't get nominated either.

You've got a good point with the extra credit for making the Final Four. Maybe they could come up with points for various accomplishments and formulate that with game stats, conference championships, playoff finishes, all conference, player of the year, etc.

So, bottom line I guess is if you can't show me the numbers, don't show me the names.

 

I would agree that the deserving girls should be nominated by other coaches if possible. Personally, I did not get to see many teams from our district play this year. There were girls that I remembered as being very talented while watching last summer but when I called the coach to try to get some info on the girls there were typically reasons why they were not nominated or the coach never returned any message to confirm the girl at least played this year. Had a couple of girls I called about that did not play this year (glad I did not nominate them without at least a phone call).
I agree the form seems to not be the issue. I would love to see the number of nominations be expanded but not because 1 school nominates thier entire team but because every school nominates deserving players from their team.
I kind of like the idea of tying all-conference in with all-district. The main issue I have had is with a player that has gone into a slump for 3 or 4 conference games (we only have 10) but was a statistical leader for the other 19-20 games during the season. They may not warrant an all-conference (10 games) bid but be a stronger candidate for all-district which I see all as a year long (23 games) issue.

 

Just to be throwing out numbers for thought:

Points:
Player of the Year 20
Pitcher of the Year 20
School MVP 15
All Conference 10
Honorable Mention 5
Conference Champions 10
Runner Up 5
State Champion 10
Runner Up State 5
Regional 10
Runner Up Regional 5
Played for Coach of the Year 5
400+ GPA 25

Must be selected All Conference to be considered All District
Must be selected All District to be considered All State

yada yada yada

 

I had a lot of friends and travel ball teammates who made All - District and All - State, Just about all were deserving of this honor. I had one former teammate who had so-so stats and made All Conference, District, and State. I asked her how she did it with the stats she had? Her reply was, My coach liked me and made my stats better then they were. Was I angry? Yes and No! I had much better stats, my coach never put me in. I was happy for her in a sense, at least she has a coach who cares.

 

Cares about what? Being a friend? What did the coach teach her? That cheating is ok?

Which stats mean the most, yours with no nomination; or hers with All State attached to them?

 

The process as presented here seems okay for nomination purposes, but no real process for selection decisions. When asked about why certain kids did not make all state after making all district, I have heard the following. Well her fielding percentage and batting average, averaged together was not high enough. That is not listed here as any criteria. Well even though she outperformed someone else, someone else was a senior this year. Don't see that listed either.

I also don't think you should limit the number of selections by how far you make it in the playoffs. I have seen a lot of teams with a lot of great ball players lose 1-0 in the early rounds, because it just was not their night. Our problem here is that their is no way to monitor the players and coaches unless you play them. The coaches can only see the kids they play against, because they are tied up coaching their own teams. Stats are padded everyday. You see it when one team's score book is drastically different than the team they played in the same game. I don't have a solution for it that is feasible at this time. I would love to see trained, independant score keepers at each game, but that is not affordable.

 

If the nominations were connected with the All Conference selections, including Honorable Mentions maybe, that could possibly make it a little more credible. After all, who knows their players better than their own coaches. The other conference member coaches would also be more familiar with them. When you think about it, how can you be All State if you aren't at least All Conference.

That may not seem to be enough players recognized due to limits of All Conference selections but trying to recognize too many dilutes the status of the award, anyway.

Like one poster mentioned, when you select all but one player you have effectively given a negative award. As a matter of fact, if I was on the selection committee, that missing player would be added to that list of names or that list would come off.

All Conference nomination limits helps prevent that kind of thing from happening. I'm assuming that all conferences have the same formula for All Conference selections.

 

All-Conference selections

Conferences across the state do not use the same formula for choosing All-conference. For example, the conference my team plays in has set numbers. 4 for 1st place, 3 for 2nd place, 3 for 3rd place, 2 for 4th place, 2 for 5th place and 6-9 get one selection. There is another conference represented in our County that nominate as many as they feel necessary from their team and the coaches from the schools vote for the team. Who is to say what works best. Conferences have different numbers of selections such as 18, 20, 22. It is a very difficult task. A lot of work goes into the All-District/ All-State process. It has been suggested by the Executive Board of the NCSCA that we do away with this and save ourselves some headaches. We chose to take over the process when first the NCHSAA and then Ihigh quit choosing the All-teams. We can pick a 12 member All-State team if you think that it was is needed. It is a large State. I watched 150 girls play in all 18 games at the State Games last week. They sure looked like All-State players to me. I saw great and I mean great plays last week. I cannot remember seeing a young lady at the Games who I would not welcome on my team. An extremely large number of that 150 made All-State. With the wealth of Senior talent that was displayed last week, it would be very difficult for an underclassmen to makea 12 player All-State team. We give out a certificate for All-District and All-State. As far as I know, no player has ever returned a certificate and said they was returning their certificate because it is a so-called watered down process and they weren't deserving of their certificate. What we do and have always done is work for the kids. Those certificates mean the world to some of those kids. I don't see recognizing kids as a bad thing. I cannot believe that some people start out their comments by saying "Congratulations to all the young ladies who made All-State, but". Why in the world would people need to make that statement? The Executive Board of the NCSCA will be meeting in about 3 weeks at the clinic in Greensboro. I am positive this will come up and a decision will need to be made. I am concerned that this is going to be a topic that members are tired of addressing. There is definitely an alternative and it seems to becoming more and more of a possibility. I sure hate to think that the players in the coming years will not have a chance to hang one or two of those certificates. I guess up grown ups know best though, instead of recognizing a large number of outstanding players, we will do away with the process and recognize no one. That's what the other organizations before us did and now we truly understand why. This is just me talking, but I hope it doesn't come to a vote in Greensboro. Thank you for your time!

Eddie "Pop" Rivers
Chairman of the Board
North Carolina Softball Coaches Association

 

It sounds like it just needs to be what it is then. I thought we were being helpful.