Football team(s) conundrums…
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
The e-mails have been coming in a-plenty since our All-State team was released. Figured they would. I appreciate the passion the readers have shown.
You don’t have to agree with all the selections, but I assure you we did the best we could and picked the best players possible. In a perfect world they could play in their right positions, but that’s not possible.
Some positions were loaded, some weren’t. It’s like that in just about every sport and players get left out. It’s a shame, but it’s the way it goes.
Spent about 20 hours spread out through three different days working on Little All-City, Big All-City and All-State. We watched countless number of highlight DVDs (by the way, the technology is ridiculous on some of those). We argued back and forth on selections.
Wrapping up my vacation back in Ohio with a couple of days left. But now that the teams are released, just some of my issues with the teams.
LAC: Hmm, this is an easy one. Were there too many reps from Millwood, Douglass and Star Spencer? The three schools had more than half the players on the first team.
But you look at numbers, look at the competition the teams played, look at how those players performed in the toughest situations, there were a lot of good-to-great players from OKCPS this year.
Toughest part: One where I was able to get ‘my way’ and one where I wasn’t. I pushed hard for Bridge Creek’s Ryan Spangler to be the quarterback, so I was thrilled he got it. He deserved it, and the Bobcats had a great season. To go with that, WR Caden Locke was someone I pushed for.
I went down in flames with Bishop McGuinness’ Jameel Whitney. Fought hard to get him on the first team, but it just wasn’t enough. Whitney was one of the most impressive players I saw on defense this year. My mythical team ran a 2-5-4, so Whitney could be that fifth LB.
BAC: Oh boy, how do you keep Shawnee’s Brayle Brown off the team? That was an absolute toughie. But when you look at what Carl Albert’s J.T. Realmuto did and Southmoore’s Kendal Thompson, man oh man, it’s not easy.
A big problem for me was Edmond Memorial. Tied with Jenks in the fourth quarter in the quarterfinals, but who do you reward? Picked LB Adrian Shoecraft because he was the best player on the field.
But how do you omit the team’s heart and soul, Nelson Medeiros? The talent of Connor Myers and Bryce Burget? The unselfishness of Kameron Doolittle? The accurate leg of Will Conant? Some teams are just that, great teams.
The only other big thing, for me, was what to do with Mustang’s Daniel Farrow? He was almost beyond sensational in his seven games but missing those first four hurt. Putting him at RB was a good compromise. Part of me was thinking he had the credentials for Offensive Player of the Year.
All-State: This is easy. You’re always scared you overlooked someone that you don’t get to see too often. That’s where the highlight DVDs came in handy. They settled a lot of arguments.
Finally got to see how good Owasso’s Aaron Colvin was. He was outstanding. Skiatook’s Drake Keys belongs in that conversation, too. Madill’s Darryl Fields is going to be someone to watch at the next level.
Took a chance on Lincoln Christian’s Roman Wilson, but he sealed his fate with a phenomenal game against Kingfisher in the 2A championship.
All All-State players had a story, capsule and video component on NewsOK, so hope you got/get a chance to check that out.
All-Edmond and All-OKC-area Private schools teams to come out later in the week. Hope everyone had a safe and Merry Christmas (know I did).
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Roman Wilson over Nyko Symonds of Southmoore is where you got it wrong-class 2A he had a great game ok that is good but a monster game against Jenks as a WR is MUCH MORE impressive and that is exactly what Symonds did he dominated that secondary and made moves on them I hadn’t seen on Jenks in a long time-I know there are great players in 2A and Wilson is a great player but Symonds would COMPLETELY dominate 2A. And look at what Symonds did against Mustang, Midwest City, PC North all 3 in the playoffs and he had HUGE games against them including 254 yards and 3 TD’s against PC North-you said in the All State roster bio of Chris McAlister that he had 199 yards against Moore–well I could have 100 yards against Moore and oh by the way did Del City even make the playoffs and you put BOTH of their WR’s on the All State team. And what were McAlister’s #’s against Symonds and Southmoore uh 2 catches for 20 yards and neither him or Donovan Dan scored against Southmoore. Symonds was almost punished for being a great two-way player he should have been All State WR he only led the ENTIRE state in yards per catch so when he caught it he did something with it nearly every time.