All-Met Selections

Questions about the All-Met selections? Washington Post high school sports editor Jon DeNunzio was online Thursday, Dec. 21 at 11 a.m. to discuss how the teams were selected.

A transcript follows.

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Jon DeNunzio: Good morning and welcome to the chat. Officially, I'm here to talk about the fall All-Met section that was published yesterday, as well as the All-Extra teams, which were published today (in, of all places, your local Extra). But I'm also glad to talk about any other issues with our high school sports coverage. Got a problem with the basketball rankings? Wonder why we cover wrestling the way we do? Ask away.

Re: All-Mets/All-Extras, I'll be glad to answer just about any questions about the sections and the picks, with this exception:

I won't really address a question that reads "Why wasn't [player's name] picked?" The problem, I have found over the years, is any way I answer that, it sounds like I am picking on the athlete ("He's too slow," "He had a bad game in the state semifinals," "Her coach didn't recommend her" ... none of that would be very kind, would it?).

But I'll likely get some questions like that anyway, and I'll just post them with minimal comment. The truth is, there are a TON of great high school athletes in the D.C. area. Not all of them can make first-team All-Met. We think the athletes who make second team and honorable mention are pretty phenomenal, too.

Okay, let's get to it ...

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Burke, Va.: Hey Jon,

How long has The Post being doing All-Met selections? And has anyone looked back to see how many went on to pro careers in their chosen sport?

Jon DeNunzio: Hi. We've been doing All-Mets in football and basketball since the '30s or '40s, if I remember correctly. More and more sports were added over the years, especially in the last 15 or so.

We have not done a comprehensive look at the post-high school success of All-Mets in my time here. Could be interesting. I would note that I do not think making All-Met is necessarily the best indicator of future pro success. Many athletes can be GREAT at the high school level, but may not succeed in college, let alone the pros.

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Washington, D.C.: What are the criteria used to evaluate and/or select the skilled football positions? Stats, team success, other honors? It appears a large weight is given to how far a team goes in the postseason.

Jon DeNunzio: Good question. For every All-Met pick, we are looking at the players' combination of on-field accomplishment and raw talent. The first part of that included how he or she did individually and how he or she helped the team succeed. So yes, team success is a significant factor.

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Washington, D.C.: How come there were no picks for football special teams on kickers/punters?

Jon DeNunzio: It's tough to make All-Met as a punter or special teams-only player. Most of the time, these are not major roles on a high school football team.

We did pick Liberty's punter, Andy Smith, as an honorable mention All-Met.

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Laurel, Md.: Hi Jon,

Can you explain how the selection process works and what role coaches play in the process? For instance, do coaches nominate players for first team, second team, player of the year, or do they just nominate players and you and your staff determine first, second, etc.?

Jon DeNunzio: Here's how it works: we solicit nominations from varsity coaches at every school in the D.C. area, and their input plays a big role in the picks (first team through honorary mention). We tell the coaches that the nominations we take most seriously are those that include nominations of players from other schools (in fact, the form is probably 65-70 percent devoted to their opinions of players from other schools, 25 percent devoted to their players. And about 5 percent to clerical junk).

The staff here then takes the nominations, adds in opinions formed from watching games and talking to coaches and scouts, and tries to come up with the best picks.

I'll tell you what surprises me -- how many coaches do not nominate players, and how few of those who do who bother to do more than nominate their players. Coaches are a great resource for us, and I wish we could get them even more involved in this process.

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Al Groh: How is Peter Lalich not first team? He's gonna be tearing it up in college and the NFL, like he did in high school.

Jon DeNunzio: As I said, hard to address these sorts of questions (this one was submitted before I put out my caveat at the top, though). So I'll just post it for posterity. Lalich is a second-team selection at QB who threw for 3,100-plus yards for West Springfield this fall. And he's committed to sign with U-Va.

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Chevy Chase, Md.: Pat Lazear's not on the list year. Is this because of his play on the field, his robbery conviction or both? Are colleges still looking at him?

Jon DeNunzio: Since I don't go into reasons why athletes were not selected for All-Met, I have to dodge a bit. I will say that the criteria for this honor given by The Post include on-field accomplishments, raw talent and character.

Re: colleges ... our Josh Barr reported on Nov. 30 that West Virginia was still recruiting Pat; Maryland and Ohio State said they were not. Not sure what the latest is.

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Arlington, Va.: I believed Deric Dudinski, from Park View, was snubbed for a first team all-met selection. I believe it was because he plays AA football in the Dulles district. He was clearly the best running back in the area this year. Not one person dominated games like he did this season on offense, defense, and special teams. How many times did you see him play this season? How many times did you see the other first team RBs play? What was your reasoning for placing him second team all-met rather than first?

Jon DeNunzio: Again, have to pass on dealing with all the specifics here. Deric had a great year and is a second-team All-Met, meaning we considered him one of the top four or five RBs in the entire area.

As an editor, I don't see many games. I'm at this keyboard. But my reporters do see a lot of games ...

Finally, I'll assure you that we have no bias against the AA Dulles District. The Mountain Empire District, on the other hand ...

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Riverdale, Md.: How was Devon Smith (WR-Roosevelt) selected over Kay Kromah (WR-Parkdale) for All-League in the Prince George's 4A Conference (or even Gabriel Cazares for that matter). I mean how can you compare almost 40 catches and 800 yards to almost 20 catches and 400 yards? Kay is in the top 15 in the state and Devon wasn't even in the top 10 in his county. Did Devon Smith even have the most catches on his team? I don't think he even outgained Brandon Murphy on his own team, so how does he deserve an All-League nomination? In addition to that, why is it that every other league has at least two WR nominations but the PG4A has only one? I think you all made a tremendous mistake with this selection and I just hope that politics did not come in to play with this selection. I am sorry that this selection wasn't left to the coaches in the county.

Jon DeNunzio: I'll just note that unlike every other league in the area, the Prince George's County football coaches do not select an all-league team. Not sure why. So we pick our own.

I can assure you that "politics" do not play a part in the decisions.

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Leonardtown, Md: Jon,

I am the Men's Soccer Coach at St. Mary's Ryken where I have been fortunate enough to coach JJ Raley for two years. JJ has scored 30 goals and added 7 assists (17G/3A this year) during his sophomore and junior seasons as a midfielder in the competitive WCAC, having scored against every team in the conference including 2 in a 3-2 win over #5 Gonzaga. He was named 1st Team WCAC, only one vote away from sharing Player of the Year honors with Keiran Rice (as was Jonathon Werth) while being named 2nd-Team as a sophomore. He was named St. Mary's County Player of the Year. He started as a left back for the Casa Mia Bays National Champion U16 side and for the Maryland ODP National Champions. I am not sure what more the young man can do to be recognized. I would be shocked if my submission was the only one to nominate JJ. He is well known in soccer circles as a very dangerous player in attack and a Div. I shoe-in at left back. Please explain to me your logic for excluding him from ANY All-Met recognition. And remember, he plays for a program that jumped from joint 7th to joint 3rd in the WCAC finished at 13-8-2 with losses to DeMatha, Gonzaga, Carroll, Paul VI, and Severna Park - all very solid teams.

Sincerely,

Will Lozier

Men's Soccer Coach

St. Mary's Ryken

Jon DeNunzio: Again, posting for posterity.

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Clinton, Md.: Good morning. How are the selections for cross country determined?

Jon DeNunzio: All the teams are selected in a pretty similar manner, with coach nominations, reporters' observations, etc. coming into play. See previous responses for more detail.

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Anonymous: Why are postseason meets considered for cross country?

Jon DeNunzio: I assume this refers to the Foot Locker regional and national meets. These meets have become such a part of the cross-country scene, we think it would be silly to ignore them. The runners are ostensibly at peak condition, competing against top competition.

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Sterling, Va.: It seems the All-Met is disproportionately focused on schools closer to or inside the Beltway. Would you agree?

Jon DeNunzio: Without having counted up the number of players from each county on our teams, I'd like to think that's not the case. We try to be pretty blind to geography in the picks -- we want the best players/athletes, period.

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Manassas, Va.: Brandon Hogan was named the AP Virginia AAA Player of the Year yesterday. How close was he to beating out Friendly's Joe Haden for the All-Met player of the year?

Jon DeNunzio: Hogan was very close to being named Offensive Player of the Year. He was fantastic this season.

(If you don't know, Hogan was Osbourn's quarterback, led the team to the Virginia AAA Div. 6 title, and threw and ran for a combined 4,200 yards.)

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Crofton, Md.: How do you determine the number of athletes to include in each All-Met grouping?

Jon DeNunzio: We have used the same number of players on each team for at least six straight years now, because I get a little nuts on consistency. They are generally the size of a starting unit, plus one or two spots to give a little extra recognition.

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Clinton, Md.: In the last 10 years, only two female cross country runners from private schools have made first-team All-Met in cross country. Are the private schools being overlooked?

Jon DeNunzio: Like the outer county question, I don't think so. One of the best girls' runners I remember in recent years was Cara Kiernan of Potomac School (runner of the year in 2002).

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Ellicott City, Md.: I'd like to compliment your use of the photo edit software to compose the All-Met team photos. It was nice to see all the players included, even if they weren't able to make the scheduled photo shoot. And, there wasn't a bad (eyes closed, etc.) photo of any of the athletes. Great use of new technology!

Jon DeNunzio: Thanks -- all the credit on that goes to Chris Rukan, our designer extraordinaire who conceived the idea. And Preston Keres, our superb photographer, took some great photos.

I'm just the word guy ...

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Sterling, Va.: Has a player ever been honored (Met or Extra) on both sides of the ball in the same season?

Jon DeNunzio: Not that I know of. We try to spread the honors around as much as possible, so we wouldn't really consider making a football player a double All-Met in one year.

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Northern Virginia: I know this is a tough job that you can never win...Jon, how do you determine the strength of an area? Looks like Maryland was considered a tougher place to play based ranking and All-Star selections.

Jon DeNunzio: Thanks for that.

We don't really talk about the strength of an entire state in these decisions; we may look at the quality of competition within a league or on one team's schedule. And you do that usually by looking at the results of all the teams, especially out of league, and the college talent they produce. Admittedly, it's an inexact science.

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No. Virginia Coach: How would you like us to get more involved in the process? Supply footage? Send you weekly updates? Most of us want to be proactive.

Jon DeNunzio: The more communication, the better. If you coach an area high school team and don't know which Post reporter is assigned to your beat, contact me (denunzioj(at)washpost.com) and find out. The reporters are always looking for more coaches who can help them find the best stories out there.

And if you're not submitting an All-Met nomination, start next season. The best ones are from coaches who obviously understand the approximate. level of play that it takes to make All-Met, and tell us honestly which players -- on their teams and others -- they think are deserving of the honor.

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Montgomery County: Jon-as always a nice job by the Post in honoring high school kids and their accomplishments. I'm sure you don't get enough thanks for that.

Question: It appears The Post staff has the belief that some sports are strong in certain parts of your distribution area, but not others. For example-boys soccer is heavy on MCPS, but other sports seem heavily represented from other parts of the area. Is this true, and, if so, how much does the perceived strength of an area influence the final decisions? Thanks.

Jon DeNunzio: Thanks very much for the kind words.

There are certainly areas that have traditionally produced a lot of talent in certain sports -- Anne Arundel County for lacrosse, for instance, or Howard County for wrestling. We consider that. But you can't blindly stick to that -- and we try not to. Make sense?

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Washington, D.C.: I can't believe you didn't pick me... did you not see how much I dominated every single play in every single game I played? Did you not hear about my greatness? You're just prejudiced against my school.

Now for my serious question: It appeared there were two people not identified in the back row of the football's defense group picture yesterday. One player and Coach Schulze, both to the right of DeMatha's Kenny Tate. I couldn't find a correction this morning. Who was that player?

Jon DeNunzio: I think this is in reference to the online version of the All-Mets -- looks to me like everyone is ID'd in the paper version.

Looking online, looks like Garrett Watson of South County and Coach Steve Schultze of Osbourn are right of Tate in the defense pic.

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Washington, D.C.: If a coach doesn't nominate a player as player of the year, but just for All-Met, do you still consider them for POY based on their stats/accomplishments for the season?

Jon DeNunzio: Absolutely. We might call the coach and doublecheck, but sure, we do that.

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Jon DeNunzio: Well, it looks like we're running out of time. Thanks for all the questions and comments. Feel free to contact me at denunzioj(at)washpost.com if you have other questions about our high school sports coverage.

Enjoy the holidays!!

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