District and State Award Selection Process

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Coming out of the All-Ohio Selections thread, http://www.game-ex.com/vb3/showthread.php?t=36639 , there was some criticism of the selection process. We do see this criticism every year but maybe it is time to review that process.

I have no discord with the current selection process for District and State awards. My DD has received District and State awards, her high school career is over, and I have no other children. But with any process, we must continually look to see if there is a better way.

I think there might be a better process. In the current process, if a single league has more coaches in attendance that the other leagues or independent schools, then that league can control the selections, much like our current government legislative process.


So, what if each district adopted the following process:
  1. Each district will establish a Selection Board to select athletes to the All-District and All-Ohio Teams.
  2. Each league within a district will select 2 coaches within each division to sit on the Selection Board.
  3. Independent schools within a district will select 2 coaches within each division to sit on the Selection Board.
  4. If a league or Independent school has less than 2 schools in a particular division, that league and/or Independent school will automatically get 1 seat each on the Selection Board.
  5. Any OHSFSCA coach can nominate any district athlete for a District or State award.
  6. The board will vote on all nominations. A simple majority is required for selection.
I feel that if this process is used, then each league and Independent schools have equal power. There will still be a political atmosphere but any particular league cannot control the selection process just by having the majority of coaches in attendance. Then high school athletes will have a fair shake at recieving a District or State award.

I would really like to hear from HS coaches on this. Has this, or any other selection format, been used in the past? If so, what was it's weaknesses. Do you think the current process is the best process and if so, why?
 
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Well seeing that LU cleans up at the state and district level each and every year I am surprised you would suggest a change.:eek: Definately don't think your HS coach would like this process....but as you said, you no longer have a dog in the fight so I'm sure it doesn't matter to you much anymore. Should have suggested all this 5 years ago.;)

Hope that injury heals up so you can get out of the house....you have way to much thinking time on your hands!!
 
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This was my first year in the process. I agree it could be improved. I feel every player that I knew that was selected was deserving. However, there are many players nominated with wonderful stats that I didn't really know anything about. That is the first problem with the process and it really isn't solvable. In addition, some girls play on bad teams and I think some of them did get overlooked. I took issue with the following:

1. Some coaches had blanks on their ballots, keeping points away from kids.
2. Some coaches voted for kids at the bottom of their ballots whose stats were not even in the same ballpark as most of the other players, again keeping points away from more deserving kids.
3. Since you can vote for your own players, some coaches nominated and voted for players in the first spot who, again, were clearly lacking when compared to other nominees.
4. As expected, scorekeeping is probably inconsistent (as we all know) which skews the process. I find it difficult to believe the accuracy of 3 players nominated from one team who never, one time, reached base on an error.

Some of that just can't be helped. It is not possible to have first-hand knowledge of every player in your region and coaches should be strong supporters of their own DESERVING players. But when you are voting for 5 infielders and you have nominated somebody with a .350 batting average and there are 20 other kids .450 or better, it seems a little wrong to me to vote your player first.

I would change a couple things for sure. I would make it an open, rather than secret ballot. I think each coach voting should have to list their school name on their ballot. That way everybody knows how you voted. If you have a problem putting your name on the ballot, you are probably not voting correctly. The other thing I would change is to bring technology to the process. All the nominations should be turned in prior to the meeting and emailed to all the coaches in advance. That way, those interested in voting properly would have time to review the nominees. In our district, coaches were voting that weren't even looking at the sheets or not looking at them anywhere near long enough to properly vote.

Just my 2 cents after being involved in the process one time.
 
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I am not a coach but a parent of a junior. I volunteer for her high school and this year the coach gave me all the info sheets coaches fill out to see who i would have selected. I was right on 4 selected for infield BUT her is the kicker

1 player who made 1st team all district was 22 for 66 with a .458 batting average. I had to laugh that a coach would actually give this girl this average. Our head coach said you only have about 5 minutes to look over everything before you vote, also said it was "ole homeboy week " meaning you vote for my girl and I will vote for your girl.

just my two cents
 
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There is no doubt that there is no easy fix to this process, but I think Buckeyefamily hit the nail on the head that the coaches have 5 minutes to look at it before they vote. One would assume that most coaches vote for the girls with the best numbers in front of them at the time of the vote. I guess my question is this (I think I know the answer), is there any factor as to who the player has played against to obtain those numbers? Another problem for ALL high school players is the vote depends on if their coach even puts them up to be considered. I'm sure a lot of people have wondered how a girl received a certain honor from a HS with a girl from the same HS who had better numbers didn't receive as much. Or even the fact if the coach didn't attend enough in service hours (or whatever they are called) to vote, a player can't even be nominated. Who loses there!!! I certainly don't have the answers to these questions but there is always the search.
 
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You will have a hard time convincing the LU coaches that they clean up every year. They particiapted in the state tournament this year yet only received two first team all district and one second team all district members. There was a team that did not even make it to districts that did better than that!
 
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You will have a hard time convincing the LU coaches that they clean up every year. They particiapted in the state tournament this year yet only received two first team all district and one second team all district members. There was a team that did not even make it to districts that did better than that!

I see your point;)...I have pressed my AD to swith our name to Northmor Union in hopes it would help.:yahoo:
 
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I see a common theme among most of these posts and it is quite disturbing, although it is reality. The whole process stinks of lack of integrity. What does that say about all those that are involved in it?!
 
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as a coach, I do not question the integrity of the coaches. From 15 years of high school coaching, it comes down to people vote for those they see, and teams they know are good. You get like 100 slips on kids, it's a total joke to think it's impartial. We had a kid make all district who didn't make all league. No voting is perfect, but all league is much better due to coaches actually seeing the kids. I have no answer, I think the first suggestions are good. As it stands now, you must join the coaches association to even have a kid considered. You MUST be at the meeting or even if your kid is first team, they don't get the award. It's very frustrating, but again, I have no solid solutions.

I see a common theme among most of these posts and it is quite disturbing, although it is reality. The whole process stinks of lack of integrity. What does that say about all those that are involved in it?!
 

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