Class 3 District 11 Coach of the Year

[Razzy417]

How do we feel about Larsen of Strafford getting COY award in this district?

Fair Grove just repeated as state champs under their new coach Gary Greene

Both teams played tough schedules, Strafford went 17-11, their worst record in a few years, 6 of the losses by 15-33 points. Fair Grove went 25-7 and beat Strafford by 30 in districts. Their 7 losses were all to really, really good teams like Rock Bridge, Poo, Skyline (twice), ELDO in the first game (beat them in the state championship game), Republic, and Marshfield. Skyline had their number - beat them by 11 and 16, but their other 5 losses were by single digits to said tough and mostly teams from larger schools.

They did return most everyone, but lost their best player from last season, Green.

Strafford returned Elsie Larsen, the coaches daughter and an all state player as a freshman, Jones, and at least one or two others with varsity experience. And although they did lose two starters, I for one expected them to do better than they did.

What am I missing here?

 

[TadQueasy]

Seems rather clear don't it? Coaches in that district for whatever reason did not like Greene and were all buddies with Larsen

No way that decision can be justified.

 

[Razzy417]

Yeah there’s a lot of politics with these all district and all conference teams, every year I see players and coaches get screwed on these things. It may not matter much to the coaches who vote, but it does matter to the ones who receive the honors, or don’t receive them when they should have. Especially the players…

 

[ChaoticFanatic]

Seems rather clear don't it? Coaches in that district for whatever reason did not like Greene and were all buddies with Larsen

No way that decision can be justified.

I was going to say “it was probably a popularity contest” but I didn’t have any info to go off of.

 

[TadQueasy]

Some strange stuff. So Coach Greene does not get coach of the year in his own district, but gets the all state coach of the year for class 3?

And the Larsen girl from Strafford is the player of the year for class 3? No offense to her, but there are some better players on that all state list and her team did not even win their district.

fishy indeed!

 

[Razzy417]

Just about as fishy as the officiating in the 2020 Class 3 state championship game between Strafford and Licking...

 

[HARDWORK3211]

POY plus another all-stater, but got turbo clocked in Districts?

 

[Razzy417]

Yeah how many girls teams had two returning all staters?

 

[Razzy417]

So to summarize from the voting/awards, Strafford had the best Class 3 player in the state, plus another all state player, and had the coach who won district COTY over the coach who won the state championship and whose team thumped Strafford by 30 in districts, but yet Strafford only went 17-11 (their worst record since 2011-12 season) with 6 of the losses by between 15-33 pts.

Put me down as "confused"

 

[Comeagle]

Has a scenario like this ever happened before, if it has I can’t remember it. If it has never happened before, you have to wonder why it is happening this year. Especially given the family ties of the coach and player

 

[Razzy417]

I'd have to say that this is pretty much an unprecedented level of bullshit going on here, at least from what I've seen. There's been plenty of other BS but mostly that's been about which players get selected to the all conference and all district teams. They generally get the all state players right, at least more so than the all district and all conference ones, probably bc there are more votes statewide that dilute and weed out the ones based on politics. Only 6-10 coaches give or take vote on the all conference/all district stuff and all it takes is at least one or two questionable votes to sway who makes those teams.

I don't want to talk bad about a player on here, but there were other deserving candidates for Class 3 player of the year, on teams that won more games and went way further in the postseason. And the fact that this was apparently a statewide vote makes me question it.

 

[StraffordCamp]

Some shady stuff going on for sure. District champ should be coach of the year. Especially based on head to head results for the year.

My only thought is some coaches are "Jelly" because Gary walked into a ready made team. But lets be honest. Larsen did the exact same thing when he won his only title. Frank handed him the keys to the kingdom.

So how can coaches do him dirty like that.

As for POY, man his daughter is good, but so are several of the others....Not sure who the best POY is in Class 3. I feel like there's a lot of deserving players. Usually its a final 4 team it seems like....

For real though....Gary should have gotten it coach and I feel like State POY should probably be a player that at least makes it out of districts...but that just me

 

[Hoopsquad20]

Who is better than Larson on FGs squad? No one. I'd even take jones and Larson in a 2 on 2 vs FG best 2 girls... but add in even 1 more girl and FG wins. The more girls added to the mix the wider the margin of victory for GG and FG. Does that make any sense?

 

[Razzy417]

Who is better than Larson on FGs squad? No one. I'd even take jones and Larson in a 2 on 2 vs FG best 2 girls... but add in even 1 more girl and FG wins. The more girls added to the mix the wider the margin of victory for GG and FG. Does that make any sense?

Sometimes players look better and put up better numbers when they are the best one or two players on a team with a dropoff after that in talent. Especially when you're the daughter of the coach. More opportunities/usage = more court experience = more confidence and improvement.

Fair Grove has a balanced team, but how would any of their top players do if they were in a situation when they are by far the top one or two players on their team and had to do a lot more for their team?