It's time for Wildcat11's annual plea to the Head Coaches of the Northwest Conference regarding making the 1st team All-Conference selection elite. It has almost become an annual tradition where the NWC coaches put way too many players on the first team offense or defense or it seems there is always Co-Offensive and Defensive players of the year in the conference. It's almost a running joke at this point and it's a shame because we have great players in the conference that should be pointed out as our very best and not hidden by a mass of other good but not great players.
Just look at last year. The conference names Linfield's Taylor Summers and Willamette's Tommy Grove Co-Defensive players of the year. I know Willamette had a outstanding season but I'm sorry...Tommy Grove was nowhere near the player as Summers and shouldn't have had a piece of that honor. I don't even think Grove was the best LB on that team (Bevins).
Then on the offensive side of the ball we had Whitworth's Anderson and Willamette's Woo as co-offensive players of the year. Now that was a legit debate but at the end of the day the coaches should have made the tough choice and either named Anderson or Woo the offensive POY. (I would have taken Anderson)
In fact 4 out of the past 6 seasons the Conference has named Co-POY's either on offense or defense. That includes 2003, when the NWC inexplicably named TRI-POY's on both offense and defense. That's crazy considering there were only 6 teams in the entire conference at the time!
Again, we look at the 2008 1st team defense where there were four linebackers named to the 1st team defense but only 2 defensive backs. Really? There were only two defensive backs in the entire conference that were worthy of being name first team? I guess the conference was trying to balance out when they named 6 DB's 1st team in 2007. It's really all over the map.
I'm begging the coaches to make the 1st team all-conference selections the elite of the conference...I mean make the decision on who is the best in each position throughout the NWC. Do we really need to see a case like in 2005 when Joel Clark, who was a fine QB, was named 1st team offense along with Brett Elliott? Or in 2007 where the coaches named two place kickers to the first team? I know both of those kickers were probably deserving but you couldn't tell me that coaches didn't know that one of the kickers was better than the other? Come on! Make a hard decision on who is the best in the NWC!
If the coaches do finally start making these tough decisions all it will do is help promote the best players in the NWC and the NWC itself. Conferences that put a excess numbers of players on their first team are pretty much negating any pull or influence the NWC conference team may have as a potential endorsement of the conference's best. I put the question to Publisher of D3football.com, Pat Coleman, about conferences that have a glut of players named to their all-conference teams and this is what he had to say: "In my mind, a voluminous All-Conference team basically makes the coaches' opinion unusable when we're voting on All-Region and All-American awards. We hope an All-Conference team can tell us who the best player is at each position, so that we know how to compare players across conferences."
Freaking Bingo Pat! I know the coaches hearts are in the right place and they want to fight for the respect of their players and programs but in order to help further promote the conference we have to legitimize the NWC all-conference sections. So please coaches, let's make the hard choices and select the best of our best.
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9 comments:
I actually thought 2008 was a significant step in the right direction. Wasn't the overall # of first-teamers down quite a bit?
And I don't really understand your concern about having only two defensive backs if your major argument is that they name only the best of the best to the first team? What if 2-3 DBs are obviously better than a second wave of 4-5 guys that have roughly 'second-team' resumes?
2008 was better but they are still not there.
You do have a point about the defensive backs and my bitching stems from never knowing what you're going to get year after year in regards to number of players at any position. The numbers are big one year and then small the next. My example with last year's DB might have not been perfect but it happens with other positions often.
Another thought regarding the defensive backs....would it be better to break them down by Corners/Safeties or is the fact that so many programs run defensive with hybrid DBs the coaches elect to just keep the whole group listed as "defensive backs"?
They do have WR and Slots for the offense so why not Corners and Safeties for the defense?
Don't you know we live in the age of everyone gets a trophy and no one should be left out? While unfortunate, they don't want to single out someone as being better, having hurt feelings and angry fans/parents. The same thing happens in HS sports in my hometown.
Was not the height of absurdity 2004 when, I believe, every LINFIELD starter was on the team?
DO.C.,
Well that was a hell of a Linfield team! :) But that's a valid point.
The best was that Brandon Hazenberg was named 1st Team offense three times! WR, Punt returner, Kick returner. Has that ever happened in the NWC before?
What if 2-3 DBs are obviously better than a second wave of 4-5 guys that have roughly 'second-team' resumes?
When a coach puts a team on the field, he has to make a decision just like that. They must start three or four or five defensive backs, right?
When coaches put teams on paper, they should do the same thing.
If Boehme is forced to share the offensive-POY award with anyone else, then the joke has really gotten stale. No one deserves it more than him, and no one really has the cumulative numbers to justify it. We shall see.
Pat,
Hoosiers -
"Coach you need one more"
"My team's on the court"
Look, all I'm saying is that (in my opinion) putting 1 or 2 obvious second-tier DB's on the first-team actually waters down the award more than naming 5 or 6 truly deserving DB's in another year.
This is a honorary line-up. I don't think they'll be flagged for having too many guys on the line of scrimmage.
I like the way that D3football.com handles their all-american/regional teams and I'd like to see the NWC coaches go down the same path. We'll find out in a little over the week if it's the same old from the coaches.
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