PNCLL B Division All-Conference Team and Awards

[Blake]

The above list is not the end-all-say-all of who is the best in the league.

Reasons:
1. Some people play more games than others, thus have more of an opportunity to impress coaches.

2. Change two of the individuals who vote (maybe three), and the list could look completely different.

3. At the end of the day, this is just an opinion list. Everyone has a different opinion. It just so happened the people who voted and/or put this team together had the above opinion. That does not make it correct or incorrect. These guys did the best they could putting the team together, and no matter who puts it together, there are always going to be mistakes.

The good players in the league are not going to need to see their names on the above list to know that they made a solid contribution to their team. Don't get me wrong, it is awesome to see. I would be blowing smoke up your behind if I told you I didn't care if I made all-conference or not. We're all a little superficial in that sense. It's a fun thing to look forward to. However, making that list does not make you any better than another player, and not making it does not mean you are any worse. It's just a list...that's it.

But yeah, I do think the guy who leads the league in points per game probably should have gotten first team

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

I think Blake is a fantastic goalie - one of the best our B division has ever seen. . .and I understand that he is the MVP of the Albertson team. . .

After watching Noah today against Montana make 23 incredible saves against Montana, including 11 in the first quarter against several point-blank Montana shots. . .I can't say the coaches made a bad decision with their 1st team selection in the cage.

We have two great goalies here, and an argument could be made for either of them.

But for ANYONE to suggest that Noah Symington is NOT worthy of first-team all conference is simply ridiculous. And I think Blake would probably agree.

Blake and Noah are both fantastic kids - so I was happy to see them both recognized for their outstanding seasons. Both Albertson and WWU were two of the most improved teams in the B divsion this year -and those two were the MVPs of their respective teams in 2006.

[Tim Whitehead]

Congrats to Adam Lent on his Coach of the Year award. I know how much time, effort, and thought he put in to his job, and the award is well deserved.

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

Blake,

I agree that Cody is a fantastic attackman. . .and also the leader in ppg during the season. . .

Nick Tkachuk was the leading scorer for the league, and he would be the first to tell you that not only is he honored to be on the all-league second team, but he'll also tell you that Kris Olsen is the leader of that very potent PLU attack. . .

Zander Ault was the MVP of the final four and he is one of the best players in our league, A or B division. You saw him put up 11 points against you a couple weeks ago. Townsend Hall was the Offensive Player of the Year last year, and he did nothing to tarnish that honor with his incredible sophomore season. He scored 11 points in the Final Four.

Sure, an argument can be made for Cody Hart, John Healy or Nick Tkachuck on the first team. . .and I understand you pulling for your team mate to be on the first team. Your position is very defendable, and had Cody been put on the first team I would not have had any problem with that. . .but with respect to the attack, I think the coaches did a pretty darn good job.

And ppg is a nice stat, but when you don't play tough out-of-conference games, your ppg average can stay a little inflated. PLU played two A-division teams and 6 games against ranked teams in 2006. . .Montana played a top-10 schedule this season. . .and it is a LOT harder to keep your ppg up when you play the likes of USD and Claremont College, the #1 and #2 teams in the country.


You're right about one thing. . .this list is an inexact science. Coaches all have different opinions about what makes a great player, and teams that play fewer games may not get seen by a coach or two. . .but all in all I think this system works well and the team you see presented is pretty darn solid.

And. . .for the record. . .if you're available this summer Kyle and I would love to have you play goalie on the team we are sponsoring for the Summer Slam Victoria tournament. Let me know if you'd be interested in playing. We'd love to have Cody on the team as well if he's aroung this summer.

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

Congrats to Adam Lent on his Coach of the Year award. I know how much time, effort, and thought he put in to his job, and the award is well deserved.

Coach Lent did a great job with that team. . .a team that missed the playoffs in 2005 advanced all the way to the finals in 2006 - and was within 3 goals with only a quarter to play.

Mitch Hutchinson of OSU did a similar job turning around the Beavers in 2006.

Both coaches were very deserving of their honors and should be very proud of their seasons in 06.

[Lax_Stats]

Has everyone forgotten about the coach from Southern Oregon???

[muchachojones]

I think they forgot about Oregon entirely. Oregon has five B teams in the conference yet only three players from those five teams made the top two conference teams. And no first teamers! And with only ten spots out of 65 possible on the all-star selections, I guess Oregon Lacrosse just sucks.

[Blake]

Jason,

While I agree that Cody's stats could be inflated by the fact that we did not have a tough out of conference schedule, I think that is negated by the fact that he was by himself on the offensive side of the field. It doesn't matter if it's Western Oregon, UPS, PLU, or Montana coming after you...if you have two long poles on you or are face guarded the entire game, you're going to have to do some pretty amazing things to stay at the top of that ppg list.

Example: When we played Montana, even on man down defense the Grizz devoted one guy to face guarding Cody. Just to test it Cody ran behind the crease all the way to the end line and stood there. His defender still followed him there and stood with him. How many other players in the league drew that kind of attention?

[Kyle Berggren]

My fuse is just entirely to short for this stuff but I'm going to post anyway...

The Board Collates the voting, which is done by your coaches.... I'm going to repeat that for emphasis... your coaches.... Everyone on the board would have tweaked the teams a bit, and I doubt anyone thinks its perfect. If your favorite player ended up on the 2nd team, he didn't get enough votes to be on the first. Many of the players on HM were added by the board, as we felt they were left out.

This is something that was created by the league, presented by the board, it's pretty cut and dry. That's how people were "especially screwed by the politics."

I will add that's its pretty easy to sit back and criticize when things don't go your way. It seems as though the common theme here is, 2 or 3 people on the board are voting for their own benefit, and are not held responsible for what is presented to the PNCLL. In reality, your coaches made these teams, not the board. When the numbers were added up, we knew they'd be controversial, because you all think you can do it better (it's adding, pretty easy to do in reality). We do this for free, some of us have the free time, others lose money in their careers to do it. As far as Oregon getting screwed on the voting, perhaps more coaches should have voted for these players, but they didn't. On whether or not PLU, WWU, & Montana are that much better than the rest of us, I'd say this season, they were. 3 of the 4 final 4 teams were them, and WWU handled the 4 seed very well. I challenge all of you, to make your first line of midfielders, and then see who is left out? That's only 3 spots, have a good time, I had to struggle with this in the voting as well.

edited for spelling & to add that Will F. from Montana was probably the most slighted. He's start for any team in our league.

[Juergy]

It's a conspiracy against Oregon teams I'm sure. All those self-righteous Washington folk ganging up on their poor little step-sister Oregon. Jesus you guys sound rediculous.

[SouLax#1]

Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 2:46 am Post subject:
Has everyone forgotten about the coach from Southern Oregon???

Sorry to flood this forum with yet another biased opinion, but this must be said, Mark Brown, Coach of second year program Southern Oregon took a 3-5 team from a year ago, a team with wins over only willamette and Louis and Clark, to a 9-3 record and this years PNCLL final four, not to mention defeating perrinial PNCLL powerhouse PLU during the regular season, and doing it all with a squad of 15...can anyone remember a turnaround quite like that? I dunno, but i bet it would be easier to coach a team that can actually field 6 on 6 during pracitce... You are the man Mark[/quote]

[Hi-Line Lax]

I seem to remember a turnaround like that last year with Montana...a team that had won only two games in the previous two seasons and then beat everybody...so it's not like this doesn't happen. After watching WWU and SOU on Saturday I think it was pretty clear that Western was much better than SOU. I made a point before the awards came out that probably the most difficult award to give out this year would be the B division Coach of The Year...as there were many qualified people. There can only be one winner and I think Adam Lent defiantly deserved it this year. Most of all though, congrats to all the coaches this year for making this league a lot stronger. As for the conspiracy against teams from Oregon...Montana, PLU, & WWU were by far the top teams this year, but none of those teams voted for their own players...pretty hard to rig something that's completely out of your control. I know the board works many hours on this process, but ultimately it's not up to them, it's up to the coaches.

[Kyle Berggren]

Guys, lets take a step back and look at the situation. No one is out to get Oregon Lacrosse.... of the Division A we have the League MVP from Oregon State, OMVP from Oregon, & the DMVP from another country. There is not a Washington bias, just take a look at his body of work.

Congrats to Adam Lent, the 2006 PNCLL B Division Coach of the Year. There were many candidates that were worthy, but Adam just snuck it out. His resume includes bringing a 3-4 team that didn't make the playoffs to a Top 15 nationally ranked program that won the B North, made the playoffs as a 2 seed, including a win over nationally ranked Montana State. That's a huge leap for a team that didn't make the playoffs last season, congrats on your success.

[TheNino57]

Thanks go to the board for all of the work you put in, thanks to Kyle and Dan for moderating the message boards (Sonny too, I havn't forgotten about you either), and thanks to the board for keeping this league functioning year in and year out. Everything in this league isn't perfect, but hey, life's just not fair. I personally feel that this year, the All-Conference Team voting system is the best it has ever been. With so many teams in the B Division (and possibly more next year) it is hard to give awards to every deserving candidate.

[Kyle Berggren]

We all seem to be advocating our own players/coaches/friends/division, but it isn't about anything remotely close to that. We voted this stuff in as a league, call your coach to complain, and then take a real step back to view it. If you can really make a case to replace these players with your own, I'm sure 10 other people can make a case that you're wrong, and that you're way too close to the issue.

It's almost as though you don't realize that when a team like Montana clearly has 2 of the best attackmen in the league, there's only 1 other spot on the first team..... with a dozen teams coaches voting for it.... There's simply not a lot of hardware, we only vote for 1st team (not second), so the voting gets pretty sparce sometimes for 2nd team.