Senior Athlete

[gobison#6]

Who won in District 1?

was it Geffre maybe?

[vballchic44]

District 15-Rachel Mehus

[philshometown]

Casey Geffre, Hankinson Pirates, District 1~~~~!!!

[sportsgod25]

From region 7, Steph Boher

[T reporter]

Hey madmomma get this, Lets say your daughter won the senior award for your district. Now you are up against the girl from the other disrtict for region player. There are 6 teams in your district and 7 in the other district, both girls are pretty good ball players, lets say it's about a draw. The girl in the district with 6 teams has a chance of slim to none to win and slim just left the building.

[nodakclassbfan]

Hey madmomma get this, Lets say your daughter won the senior award for your district. Now you are up against the girl from the other disrtict for region player. There are 6 teams in your district and 7 in the other district, both girls are pretty good ball players, lets say it's about a draw. The girl in the district with 6 teams has a chance of slim to none to win and slim just left the building.

Awfully rude, but in a sense true...I don't think that madmomma was trying to "dis" any player/coach/district/region she just merely feels that there should be some sort of guidelines followed when nominating payers. For example each coach would subjectively nominate who they feel is the best senior from their team and then for the final decision instead of subjectively voting on the nominated girls look at all stats (good/bad) from just the girl's senior year. The girl with the best overall stats wins! And for those of you who say that stats prove nothing, you obviously don't know much about the game of basketball.

[scoobyx2]

The only times topics like this come up is when someone feels a player was unfairly overlooked, and the person who got the award wasn't the most deserving. Otherwise, why even bring it up? Someone mentioned that the coaches are usually 99.9% correct...I would assume that is accurate. Why would a coach (or several) make a point to take away an award from a player that isn't even on their team?

[jibjab20]

I don't think that stats prove nothing, but I would have to say that you can't put a whole lot of weight on them. In many cases the stats, other than points, are not accurate due to human error. Many times you have student managers or parents or just someone that doesnt know a lot about basketball doing the stats. I also think that it should not be a senior award, it should be the best player. There are many times districts have to vote for a senior athlete that isn't even the best player in the district. I know some will say well then that player should get it as a senior, well not get it every year that the player is the athlete of the year.

[bball4]

District 5 - Carly Van Bruggen, L-M-M
District 6- Eli Benz, Kidder County

Benz won for Region 3

[philshometown]

Casey Geffre, Hankinson Pirates Region 1...and Good Luck at State, Central Cass Squirrels!

[scoobyx2]

I don't think that stats prove nothing, but I would have to say that you can't put a whole lot of weight on them. In many cases the stats, other than points, are not accurate due to human error. Many times you have student managers or parents or just someone that doesnt know a lot about basketball doing the stats. I also think that it should not be a senior award, it should be the best player. There are many times districts have to vote for a senior athlete that isn't even the best player in the district. I know some will say well then that player should get it as a senior, well not get it every year that the player is the athlete of the year.

There is enough whining now when it is designated for just seniors! Everyone will be out to argue that every 8th grader or freshman on a varsity team will be good and deserving...lol. Just apprecate the outstanding players who have continued to play thru their senior year, and recognize them accordingly. When a senior is playing in their last season, it does have a special meaning.

[scoobyx2]

Congrats to the Region 1 coaches for recognizing 2 outstanding seniors with Smith from Maple Valley and Geffre from Hankinson. It was a great example of looking at 2 talented seniors from completely different circumstances with their programs. Congrats to Geffre for winning the Region 1 award.

[cometdad]

Crystal Damman won region 5's senior athlete.

[sportsfan10]

Laura Lies of new rockford-sheyenne wins it for region 4.

[toddjames]

Courtney Jacobsen from Our Redeemer's in Region 6... Ray's Sam Heier was named in Region 8

[30stud#5]

Exactly, that's why I feel it should be the senior who has been consistant throughout her career and has the best stats overall. Not just all of a sudden because no one else is a scorer on her team-get the award. If that was the case, every ball player would become very selfish their senior year.

its understandable that youre upset that your daughter didnt get the award. you need to just let it go. because guess what, your TEAM won the region. its not about the individual awards any more. the TEAM is going to state. your daughters TEAM could be the best in the state. you should just worry about that.

[football rocks]

laura lies has a full ride to duke or north carolina she does it all!!!!!

[Run4Fun2009]

Eli Benz got the Class B senior athlete award tonight

[super10]

congrats to eli, but i thought that she could have accepted the award a little bit more graciously, but ill give her the benefit of the doubt that she wanted a different outcome at state.

[Dunseith_Runners]

I have sat in on a few of these meetings and my mind is made up that the other coaches know who is going to win the award before the meeting happens. We have had a coach that coached boys basketball for years retire and write what is basically a I'm sorry letter to our school. In his letter he stated how he and 4 other coaches where on the phone with each other figuring out who is going to be all district and senior athlete of the year weeks in advance of the meeting before the district games were even completed. Our school tried to file something with the state and the retired coach told the state officials what had taken place for years but nothing was done because the state said it was up to the coaches in the district to "vote" on the award. So there are behind the scene things that go on with these awards. This is just one example of what happens so I know that the most deserving player(s) don't get the post season awards. I am not sure if every district is ran like our district is but thats how its done here in district 11. The coaches vote for the awards. And the vote for senior athlete of the year you cannot vote for your own player. They make that clear. At no point in the meetings did they ever ask for anykind of stats, not even for the all district awards. I have sat in on 3 boy district meetings and 4 girl district meetings.

[rock83]

The region player of the year and the state player of the year are not voted on in a meeting. You either fax or email your vote in for those awards. I would think that in most districts there is a clear cut choice. So do you think their needs to be alot of discussion in kidder county's district about who was going to be district player of the year. Most probably have seen ali benz play. And as far as stats so you watch the players play all year, you have scouted them all year and you really need stats to tell you who your going to vote for. interesting.

I have sat in on a few of these meetings and my mind is made up that the other coaches know who is going to win the award before the meeting happens. We have had a coach that coached boys basketball for years retire and write what is basically a I'm sorry letter to our school. In his letter he stated how he and 4 other coaches where on the phone with each other figuring out who is going to be all district and senior athlete of the year weeks in advance of the meeting before the district games were even completed. Our school tried to file something with the state and the retired coach told the state officials what had taken place for years but nothing was done because the state said it was up to the coaches in the district to "vote" on the award. So there are behind the scene things that go on with these awards. This is just one example of what happens so I know that the most deserving player(s) don't get the post season awards. I am not sure if every district is ran like our district is but thats how its done here in district 11. The coaches vote for the awards. And the vote for senior athlete of the year you cannot vote for your own player. They make that clear. At no point in the meetings did they ever ask for anykind of stats, not even for the all district awards. I have sat in on 3 boy district meetings and 4 girl district meetings.

[scoobyx2]

congrats to eli, but i thought that she could have accepted the award a little bit more graciously, but ill give her the benefit of the doubt that she wanted a different outcome at state.

She probably didn't know what was going on. Even when they announced the tournament MVP, the girls looked like they didn't hear anything, and all the players weren't even down on the floor yet. Also, we criticize the players so much for showing any excitement as poor sportsmanship, that the players probably feel like they shouldn't act too happy about it...lol.

[Dunseith_Runners]

I was just commenting on the all district teams and the district senior player of the year. These awards are voted on by the coaches in the district and thats it, no one else. So if you have 4 close friends or coaches that have an "understanding" the best players will not be awarded accordingly. I would give this year as an example. This happened for our boys team. We had 1 all district player and the #5 team Bottineau had 3 all district players. I'm just saying...

[Wildcat]

I would like to hear an answer from NDHSAA on this, because I think guidelines should be used across the state. If no guidelines, it becomes all politics like the all state team.

I'm confused. Why are there politics on the all-state team? Media votes on all-state. Coaches vote on everything else including all-state for every other sport. We've all had this discussion before.

Coaches are the ones who see the way a player acts and say "They're a great player, but they have a bad attitude, so I'm not gonna vote her all-region or senior athlete of the year." When coaches give out awards, you'll almost always see a coach's kid get recognized if he's borderline, out of respect for his dad, the coach. It happens all the time.

Media ppl, for the most part, aren't out to say "well they have a bad attitude." They are not partial to coaches kids. They sleep at night regardless of who makes all-state and who does not. They do not have a dog in the fight, so to speak. If one coach holds a grudge because his girl was not voted all-state last year by one vote and that coach finds out who didn't vote for his girl, he may say "I'm not gonna vote his girl for all state." These things don't happen every day, but they do.

While its easy to say politics exist in everything, don't honestly try and say that there's more politics among the state media than there are the state's coaches.

Easiest example: How many times did Greg Amundson win championships vs. win state coach of the year? He should have three times as many coaching awards, but other coaches were not fond of him. How many of Mandan's Miss Basketballs get Class A player of the year (voted on by the coaches)?

[Baller]

I would like to hear an answer from NDHSAA on this, because I think guidelines should be used across the state. If no guidelines, it becomes all politics like the all state team.

I'm confused. Why are there politics on the all-state team? Media votes on all-state. Coaches vote on everything else including all-state for every other sport. We've all had this discussion before.

Coaches are the ones who see the way a player acts and say "They're a great player, but they have a bad attitude, so I'm not gonna vote her all-region or senior athlete of the year." When coaches give out awards, you'll almost always see a coach's kid get recognized if he's borderline, out of respect for his dad, the coach. It happens all the time.

Media ppl, for the most part, aren't out to say "well they have a bad attitude." They are not partial to coaches kids. They sleep at night regardless of who makes all-state and who does not. They do not have a dog in the fight, so to speak. If one coach holds a grudge because his girl was not voted all-state last year by one vote and that coach finds out who didn't vote for his girl, he may say "I'm not gonna vote his girl for all state." These things don't happen every day, but they do.

While its easy to say politics exist in everything, don't honestly try and say that there's more politics among the state media than there are the state's coaches.

Easiest example: How many times did Greg Amundson win championships vs. win state coach of the year? He should have three times as many coaching awards, but other coaches were not fond of him. How many of Mandan's Miss Basketballs get Class A player of the year (voted on by the coaches)?

All of Mandan's Miss Basketballs got Senior Player of the year.