2006 WCLL All-League Teams are Announced!

[Maple Leaf]

Apparently, McDonald was not nominated. The limit is 5 nominees per team, not enough for a team like Sonoma. The 5 Sonoma St. players nominated were all elected either first or second team All WCLL, same with UCSB. I'm sure that those top players who are juniors will be nominated and elected next year

if you think that is a problem in the A division, it is magnified in the B division. In the A division there is at least some parity, in the B division two teams clearly stand above the rest. Not trying to take away from the accomplishments of any individual players, but i think these all league considerations need to be taken with a grain of salt.

I will say, however, that i think it is a little absurd that there are 6 positions available for honors, yet each team can only nominate 5 players. Coaches are left trying to decide which one of their own players should be eligible, which i'm sure isn't fun for them as they would like to see all of their players eligible for honors. I'm sure the board will take all of these arguments under advisement, and as always try to improve the system for next year

[lil lady lax fan]

I think LAX SAMURAI is taking the right attitude here, pointing out players that he feels should get some recognition in the B division without taking a negative approach. There is no question that everyone played hard, working to improve their game as the season progressed. I, for one, would love to hear which players others would add to the list.

One individual I feel should be listed in a likewise manner is Marshal Shultz of San Diego. An excellent attackman who took tournament MVP last year and who is also playing well this year. I'm sure there's more. He's the one that came to mind when I read the selections.

[sohotrightnow]

Yeah, I must say that only allowing 5 players to be nominated for 3 of the top 10 teams (UCSD, Sonoma, UCSB) in the nation is a bit odd. I don't understand why we need to be fair. I recall some years where you could have plugged in Sonoma, Cal, or Santa Barbara's starting roster and they could have easily been the All-League team.

Some players and teams are simply better than other players and teams. Why do we feel the need to reward anybody and everybody who plays in this league? If you look at All-League and All-American selections in the NCAA you will notice that people are selected on their merits. Are feelings hurt? Yes, but it is a fair system that rewards people based on their abilities, not on sympathy votes. Don't even get me started on the All-American selections for the MDIA. That being said, this list looks pretty good to me....it has been much worse in the past.

It is even more apparent at the B Division as MapleLeaf mentioned.

[sohotrightnow]

Jason Trapp-Claremont
2005 First Team AA. His game has actually improved tremendously in '06, plus he leads a defense that only gives up only 5g/game.

How does somebody go from 1st team AA to not even garnering an All-League award? That doesn't seem right.

[CATLAX MAN]

it has been much worse in the past.

Agreed. There will always be some inequities in this system. Despite the democratic process that is carried out in the official voting process, there are still politics inherent in the system. There is no perfect system.

[Bluevelvet]

According to Gary's post only 3 B division coaches returned ballots and only 6 coaches nominated their own players. This seems extremely inept or very insulting to the league and their players.
All the coaches in the A division, except one, nominated players. A quick look at the list reveals a lack of UC Davis players on the list. That must be the one. Too bad, they had some good players that would have been selected.

[lil lady lax fan]

Jason Trapp-Claremont
2005 First Team AA. His game has actually improved tremendously in '06, plus he leads a defense that only gives up only 5g/game.

How does somebody go from 1st team AA to not even garnering an All-League award? That doesn't seem right.

If you look at the list you will find all five of the Claremont players in the list. Jason didn't make it due to the five player cut-off. As LAX SAMURAI points out there were quite a few players on the Claremont team who were deserving of awards that didn't make the list. Same is true of other teams, I'm sure. Jason was definitely one of them--ask any attackman who tried to get past him!! Two words: Brick Wall.

All five San Diego players made the list as did the Biola nominees.

I'm sure the suggestions flying around will help streamline this process into a smoother-working machine. Good luck to the committee.

[laxdad03]

I'm sure that those top players who are juniors will be nominated and elected next year

One other aspect that might be considered in any potential improvement of the process, at both Conference and overall MDIA levels: Along with artificial mechanisms to attempt to increase "fairness" by distributing limited numbers of nominees evenly across teams, it seems there may sometimes be some associated (perhaps well-motivated) bias toward filling limited numbers of slots with older players (who perhaps won't have another chance), at the expense of possibly more deserving candidates who are juniors (or sophomores, or even freshmen) who can "get theirs later" -- this bias may also exist in the voting itself, of course.

[Bluevelvet]

Along with artificial mechanisms to attempt to increase "fairness" by distributing limited numbers of nominees evenly across teams, it seems there may sometimes be some associated (perhaps well-motivated) bias toward filling limited numbers of slots with older players (who perhaps won't have another chance), at the expense of possibly more deserving candidates who are juniors (or sophomores, or even freshmen) who can "get theirs later" -- this bias may also exist in the voting itself, of course.

It seems to me that honoring older players who have contributed for 3 or 4 years is a good thing. A player with one good year, although deserving in some respects, would be more deserving if they could continue to produce over a 3 or 4 year period.
All American honors at the NCAA level in just about every sport favors seniors by a large margin.

[ucdlax]

Bluevelvet,

Our coach told us that we sent in nominees (I know this because he told me I was one of them)...when you take a look at our stats we have a lot of players that score and a lot of defensive players that are good (defense being our strong point). I guess the fact that we have no real standout was the issue. I was disappointed to see that we didn't have anyone on the list, at least for honorable mention, but oh well, nothing we can do about it now. We had a good season and look for us to be even better next year.

UCD #27

[Bluevelvet]

Sorry ucdlax-
I misread the post from Gary Podesta. All the A division coaches submitted nominations. One team never returned their ballot. Very disappointing about the B division coaches though.
Strange that none of the Davis players were selected. They have some good players there. I know their defense was tough. They had a very nice year.

[Nat]

Some coaches may have felt that there weren't five guys on the team that deserved consideration, leading to the lack of response in the B division. I haven't talked to my coach about his selections at all, but I can think of maybe four players on our team that I feel truly deserved consideration. But as it's been pointed out, some teams have many more than five deserving players. Maybe each coach should be allowed to nominate a number he chooses below a maximum that's higher than five.

This is my first post, I hope it works.

[NomaBlueCollar]

Maybe each coach should be allowed to nominate a number he chooses below a maximum that's higher than five.

not a bad idea. something along those lines would certainly help recognize some more of the players who obviously deserved to be selected.

perhaps each coach gets to nominate no more than 8 players, but no fewer than 5.
it would open up the ballot to A LOT more players, and would make the voting a bit harder... but thats what its all about, taking time to recognize those who are the best in the league

[camthrax]

Dear God the B division list is a travesty! I agree with the Players of the year though... Its just a shame that no one was proactive in securing more nominations... I mean Grinberg's stats dont lie, 4.42 points a game and being a second teamer last year...