TSA gets it right
All Thumb football team released.
This year's All Thumb football team was released yesterday, highlighted by the announcement that the 2007 All Thumb Player of the Year is Millington's Dustin Griesing.
There were a few questionable nominations but I can personally attest that the meeting was enjoyable. Most importantly, I think we got it right this time around.
After two undefeated teams forced us to assign co-team of the year awards for the boys basketball season; we were again faced with a similar dilemma with a couple of undefeated teams after the conclusion of the 2007 football season.
In my mind, though, no team was as dominant this year as Harbor Beach, so thankfully we were able to avoid giving out another co-team award. Yes, Reese was undefeated during the regular season, but I felt that the Pirates were the best team available to pick from, and they were a unanimous selection. They won the Greater Thumb East in dominant fashion, and they were among four teams from the conference that qualified for the playoffs. The Pirates twice defeated Ubly (once in the regular season and once in the playoffs), easily handled Deckerville and shut out Marlette, who had one of the highest scoring offenses in the whole Thumb.
Harbor Beach had the best season and they deserve team of the year honors. When the All State teams were released, the only players from HB who earned honors were linemen and linebackers, hardly the type of players who carry a team to victory. That just speaks volumes about how good of a team they really were. And no team achieves what they did without solid leadership, which is why the choice for coach of the year was another easy one. HB's Schelke deserved the nod and he got it unanimously.
Player of the year splits vote.
Last year's pick for the POTY, North Branch QB Duncan Bone, was a unanimous pick but this year was a little different.
Peck's Michael Mann had a stellar season, as the senior RB rushed for almost 1,900 yards and over 30 TDs, but the question was raised once again about the level of competition he faced.
That's the same question I'm sure voters face when they vote for the Heisman Trophy....you need to select not only a great player but a player who had the most direct responsibility for his team's success. Mann had a great year, but he rushed for 200+ yards against both Akron-Fairgrove and Owen-Gage--so there's 400+ yards (or almost one-fifth of his total) that was accumulated against teams that were a combined 1-17 on the season.
It's a shame, but that's the system. We don't know what Mann might have done if he had played against GTC or TVE competition for a whole entire season. Had he led his team to an undefeated season with a final game win over Marlette....perhaps the voting would have been different. Word is, though, that if Mann was not there, then Donnell Hamilton or another RB would have done the same thing that Mann did in 2007. That's how good the Pirates' offensive line was this past season.
Dustin Griesing had a great season for an 8-1 Cardinal team that just missed out on winning the Tri-Valley East title. He accounted for 2,250 yards (passing for more than 1,600 while rushing for more than 600) with around 25 TDs....he led his team in interceptions and was third in tackles while playing the strong safety position. Subtract Griesing from the Millington team....and they sure don't make the playoffs. They don't defeat Birch Run or Garber....They don't win their opener over Mt. Morris....they sure don't get their win in the final week of the season over Cros-Lex. Without Griesing under center for the Cardinals this season, they might have been, at best, a 3-6 team. His importance to his team success meant that much.... and I think we set the precedent last year when we selected Bone as the 2006 POTY. Other players may have been better statistically, but stats are not the true measure of how great of a season an individual may have had.
We got it right this year, regardless of what anyone else might say.
This year's All Thumb football team was released yesterday, highlighted by the announcement that the 2007 All Thumb Player of the Year is Millington's Dustin Griesing.
There were a few questionable nominations but I can personally attest that the meeting was enjoyable. Most importantly, I think we got it right this time around.
After two undefeated teams forced us to assign co-team of the year awards for the boys basketball season; we were again faced with a similar dilemma with a couple of undefeated teams after the conclusion of the 2007 football season.
In my mind, though, no team was as dominant this year as Harbor Beach, so thankfully we were able to avoid giving out another co-team award. Yes, Reese was undefeated during the regular season, but I felt that the Pirates were the best team available to pick from, and they were a unanimous selection. They won the Greater Thumb East in dominant fashion, and they were among four teams from the conference that qualified for the playoffs. The Pirates twice defeated Ubly (once in the regular season and once in the playoffs), easily handled Deckerville and shut out Marlette, who had one of the highest scoring offenses in the whole Thumb.
Harbor Beach had the best season and they deserve team of the year honors. When the All State teams were released, the only players from HB who earned honors were linemen and linebackers, hardly the type of players who carry a team to victory. That just speaks volumes about how good of a team they really were. And no team achieves what they did without solid leadership, which is why the choice for coach of the year was another easy one. HB's Schelke deserved the nod and he got it unanimously.
Player of the year splits vote.
Last year's pick for the POTY, North Branch QB Duncan Bone, was a unanimous pick but this year was a little different.
Peck's Michael Mann had a stellar season, as the senior RB rushed for almost 1,900 yards and over 30 TDs, but the question was raised once again about the level of competition he faced.
That's the same question I'm sure voters face when they vote for the Heisman Trophy....you need to select not only a great player but a player who had the most direct responsibility for his team's success. Mann had a great year, but he rushed for 200+ yards against both Akron-Fairgrove and Owen-Gage--so there's 400+ yards (or almost one-fifth of his total) that was accumulated against teams that were a combined 1-17 on the season.
It's a shame, but that's the system. We don't know what Mann might have done if he had played against GTC or TVE competition for a whole entire season. Had he led his team to an undefeated season with a final game win over Marlette....perhaps the voting would have been different. Word is, though, that if Mann was not there, then Donnell Hamilton or another RB would have done the same thing that Mann did in 2007. That's how good the Pirates' offensive line was this past season.
Dustin Griesing had a great season for an 8-1 Cardinal team that just missed out on winning the Tri-Valley East title. He accounted for 2,250 yards (passing for more than 1,600 while rushing for more than 600) with around 25 TDs....he led his team in interceptions and was third in tackles while playing the strong safety position. Subtract Griesing from the Millington team....and they sure don't make the playoffs. They don't defeat Birch Run or Garber....They don't win their opener over Mt. Morris....they sure don't get their win in the final week of the season over Cros-Lex. Without Griesing under center for the Cardinals this season, they might have been, at best, a 3-6 team. His importance to his team success meant that much.... and I think we set the precedent last year when we selected Bone as the 2006 POTY. Other players may have been better statistically, but stats are not the true measure of how great of a season an individual may have had.
We got it right this year, regardless of what anyone else might say.
Comments
I thin in the end one of us swtiched votes. Again, great post, just wanted to clarify this one point.
Chris