Picking the All-Northwest team

Another Leader-Telegram All-Northwest boys basketball team is in the books. I have to say, picking this year’s teams wasn’t easy. But after a lot of discussion and pondering, I like what we ended up with. If I was a coach, I certainly would like my odds with our first team on the floor.

For those interested, the process of picking the teams is basically this: After the season we send out nomination forms to area coaches. After reviewing those Ron Buckli and I sit down and make a preliminary list. We’ll slot players into teams, sleep on it, discuss them some more, talk to a few more coaches and then finalize our teams.

(What’s a sign that your job’s getting the better of you? Try waking up at 3 a.m. thinking about high school basketball and then going to the computer to review all-conference teams on the internet.)

Statistics certainly play a part in All-NW selection, but stats alone don’t decide the teams. If they did, there wouldn’t be much suspense. You could just pull out the area scoring leaders and count them off by five.

The biggest factors for us are what we’ve seen and what opposing coaches have to say. When a coach says Player X is the best defender or toughest matchup in the conference, that definitely counts for something.

A perfect example is Eau Claire Regis’ Jack Eaton. He’s not the leading scorer on his team, but he earned second-team honors because of his consistency and how many big shots he hit. The kid’s cold-blooded. Almost every coach I’ve talked to raves about his shot. And almost every time Buck or I saw him play, he hit a big shot.

The choice for player of the year was a pretty easy one after the performance Eleva-Strum’s Lance Rongstad put on at the state tournament. His combination of skill, poise and athleticism is one we might not see in this area for a few years. I agree with his coach, Rich Roginski. Rongstad could play DI ball.

Those are just a few of my thoughts on the teams. Feel free to share yours by leaving a comment. That’s the great part about sports, being able to debate. Thanks for stopping by.

- Joe Ziemer