It's always easy, when you're on the outside looking in, to second-guess which athletes should receive post-season honors.
It's tough actually having a hand in making those selections.
The winter high school sports season came to an end Saturday with the crowning of four boys basketball champions, but the Associated Press All-State teams were announced before that -- the girls came last week and the boys followed.
Here's how it works. Media representatives from around the state send nominations to regional reps, who attend an All-State meeting.
The voting process is pretty straight forward. The 10 or 11 media reps at the meeting each have 10 votes. The top 10 vote-getters are named first-team All-State. Any others receiving two or more votes are special mention. Everyone else, even if they don't receive a vote, is honorable mention.
Here's the problem. A.P. sports editor Larry Lage sets down nomination guidelines that are tough but fair: Reps should nominate only players they truly believe are among the top 10 players in the state. That immediately reduces the field to the best of the best -- or it's supposed to.
Most reps take Lage's instructions seriously -- we did when we turned in our short list of nominations -- but others take liberties, intentionally or unintentionally.
When last week's Class A girls All-State team was announced, the top two vote-getters for All-Big North Conference honors --
Traverse City Central's Dori Lansbach and TC West's
Jessica Oakley -- didn't make the list. Two Alpena players did, however.
Titans' coach Patti Tibaldi, whose team defeated Alpena three times during the season, was upset, and fans of both TC teams cried foul. They had a right to be upset, not because their players didn't make the list but because two Wildcats did.
Lage said the only thing he can do is to continue to beat the drum for responsible nominating and voting. The rest is up to the reps.
Then there's the Record-Eagle All-Region teams. We put a lot of time and effort into making those selections. We talk to coaches who have seen the athletes on numerous occasions and ask for their opinions.
There are always tough choices, and more often than not, someone is going to feel short-changed.
Do you reward an athlete who has had a great career but fails at crunch time? Does consistency during the regular season mean more than coming out of nowhere to help a team win a state championship?
Not everyone will agree with our choices. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
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