Home > Albemarle Sports Talk > Archives > 2007 > December
December 2007
Three down …
Three All-Area teams are in the books with two left to see print. Just for an insight into the process, here is how they came about:
First, we asked the area coaches for nominations. This process is slow, but we feel it is neccessary. The coaches are with the athletes a whole lot more than we are and see every game for the most part.
After we get the nominations, we compile a list of players nominated by sport. Both myself and Will Harris make a list of nominated players we feel are worthy of being named to the team, which should be honorable mention and which are left out entirely. Very few athletes are left off if nominated by a coach, as long as it makes sense to include them.
This year, unlike previous years, we chose players not by position, but by whether we felt they were deserving. That is how we had two kickers — Zach Leslie and Daniel Hines — on the team when we would usually have just one (Though to be honest, Leslie probably would have been named at punter, anyway and Cordero Riddick also made the team, but more for other phases of the game).
We just felt this would let us take overall talent into consideration, rather than trying to pigeonhole players into positions.
Player (or Runner) of the Year were agreed upon by both of us rather quickly in tennis, cross country and (believe it or not) football. Soccer and volleyball were a bit more difficult with several players entering the conversation in soccer. Volleyball was odd, as myself and Will had chosen two different players at season’s end, then both switched players after the nominations were in. It just made sense to have co-Players of the Year.
Is everyone going to be happy, of course not. But I believe we have the best possible teams, all things considered.
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Christmas column
Because of the All-Area Teams and early deadlines, I was unable to run my normal Monday column. Here is said column:
A very sporting Christmas list
With Christmas just hours away, I find myself with a very long Christmas list and not much time to fill it. So without further ado, I’d better get to it.
To Barry Bonds: Some help with the weight on your shoulders. Though you are still the face of the steroid problem in baseball, you now have some help with that burden you are carrying. Though with all of that muscle mass you have put on over the last several years, you probably don’t need much.
To Roger Clemens: Your share of Bonds’ steroid shame. No, more than your share of it. Your name has come up every so often, but you have escaped the white-hot spotlight that Bonds has been suffering under. It’s your turn now. Too bad you will probably just retire.
To Bobby Petrino: The whippin’ of your life in the SEC. There is no shame in striking while the iron is hot and moving to the NFL, but to jump ship midseason and leave form letters to your players … I hope you find no success at Arkansas.
To Major League Baseball: A salary cap and an anti-doping policy that works. For that matter, the same to all pro sports leagues that is missing or both.
To Duke, UNC, N.C. State: As much success in football as you have in basketball. Wake and ECU look like they are in pretty good shape on the gridiron. For them, help in hoops.
To the Washington Redskins: A trip to the playoffs. You deserve it after what you’ve been through this year.
To the Cleveland Browns: A trip to the playoffs. You deserve it after everything you have been through since Art Modell took the money and ran.
To the Cincinnati Bengals: Enough get out of jail free cards to get you through to next season.
To the National Hockey League: Visibility. You need it since no one knows where to find your games on TV. (It is Versus, by the way.)
To Elizabeth City State’s athletic program: A pick-me-up. The 2007-08 seasons have started a little slow, but hopefully the basketball teams will be back in form come tournament time. They sure were last year. But then, maybe last year has left my hopes for the home teams a little higher than normal. Success does that sometimes.
To the University of Michigan: A lump of coal. Rich Rodriguez can bring it with him from West Virginia. Rich will get his on Nov. 22.
To Jim Tressel: A lifetime contract. It is not unusual for a coach to come to a program and have immediate success. It is more unusual for that success to continue without the coach jumping ship. That’s what Ohio State has.
To Joe Paterno: A lifetime contract. No coach is more deserving of one for what he has done for his school. And to think he’s making half a million. That’s a big-time bargain in the coaching ranks.
To all of the readers: Happy Holidays.
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Merry Christmas
I will be taking the next week of so off for the Christmas holidays and want to take a minute to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season. Thanks for making 2007 a fun one and here is to 2008 being that much better. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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Dombroski takes job in Florida
Currituck football coach Rich Dombroski will be missed. He did a great job turning that program around and is fulfilling a dream by going back home to Florida. It will definitely be a lot more competitive down there, but I think Dombroski’s drive will assure success. Good luck coach.
It will be interesting where the Knights coaching search leads them. Remember, Dombroski came from out of the area, so we know Currituck is not averse to looking far and wide. However, there are some qualified candidates right here in the area, both in house and out.
Petrino out in Atlanta
Reports are Bobby Petrino resigned today as coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Expect him to pop up in the next day or two filling up one of the college vacancies. I wouldn’t hire him since it seems that when things get tough, he bails.
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Tebow the right guy
Personally, I think that Darren McFadden is the best college football player in the land. But the Heisman voters got it right by not succumbing to the ancient tradition of passing over sophomores. Tebow’s numbers were impossible to deny, which could also be his downfall. The chosen one at Florida has done little wrong in his short stay in Gainsville, and really, what can he do to top 2007? I don’t think even winning a national title could top it. Time to go pro.
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BCS got it right
People can argue all they want, but the best two teams are playing for the BCS title this year. That’s not to say they are the most deserving teams — Hawaii deserves a crack at it — but they are the best. Oklahoma is the only other team with a realistic argument at playing on Jan. 7 with two impressive wins over Missouri.
Unless Ohio State suffers another game-ending injury to its best player on the opening kickoff like last year, we can expect a very good game. (Not that the Buckeyes would have won last year, but if Ginn had played the entire game, it would have at least been respectable.)
But those of us who want to see a playoff can only hope for one thing — Hawaii to thump Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. A undefeated Hawaii team has just as much a claim to a “national championship” as anyone else (and even moreso than the 1984 BYU team who beat a 6-6 Michigan team by a touchdown in the Holiday Bowl).
