No longer MY girls

Okay, the girls who left Strong and moved to Camden Fairview are no longer MY girls. They are not in Union County and not in my coverage area. So, when the Democrat-Gazette announced its All-Arkansas Basketball Team last week and did not include a single Lady Cardinal, I didn't write anything in the News-Times.
Camden Fairview girls getting the shaft is not news to Union County.
I will say something in this space, however. The omission of Lady Cardinals Jasmine Canser and Destinee Rogers was simply not right.
The Demo-zette's All-Arkansas Team included 16 girls, including its Player of the Year, Whitney Zachariason of CAC. Without even seeing the list, I correctly listed the top six players in the state. Those are what you'd call, "no-brainers."
The rest of the list included good players. There were no slouches in the bunch. But, any list of the top players in the state that doesn't include Canser and Rogers is inaccurate. Especially if you're listing 15 players, there's no way they can't be on there.
Canser, in my opinion, is one of the top 10 players in the state, easily.
Fairview went undefeated this season and was probably the best overall team in the state. Yet, the Lady Cardinals were the only team to win a state championship and not have a player on the All-Arkansas Team.
The Demo-zette figured it was okay to dump on the players since it named Ron (not Ronald) Rogers its Coach of the Year. I don't argue with the coaching job he did, but I guess the folks who picked the team didn't realize Canser and Rogers won two state championships and went 70-2 the two seasons before he became their high school coach.
No one in the state has a better resume' than these two juniors. Three years - three state championships pretty much says it all.
I asked Camden News sports editor Kelly Blair about the situation and he didn't see anything unfair about it. His reasoning was the Lady Cardinals are juniors and most of the players named are seniors.
I've never believed in that stuff. If you're one of the best, you're one of the best. It doesn't matter what age you are.
Unfortunately, it looks like Canser might have torn her ACL during AAU play recently. Hopefully she'll come back full strength but injuries do happen, especially to girls. To not give someone the recognition they deserve is unfair because there's no guarantee they will have the same kind of season next year.
Basically, I don't feel the Demo-zette did a good job with its All-Arkansas Team this year. The folks who did it didn't put in the time, didn't make any phone calls and do their homework. Once again, there's not a player south of Little Rock included anywhere on the list.
When the best team in the state is in Camden, that's a little hard to swallow, even if they're no longer MY girls.

Eligibility issues

Moving to softball, there's a strong rumor that El Dorado's season is in jeopardy because of an ineligible player.
That would be disastrous for the Lady Wildcats, who will host the 6A State Tournament this season.
With all of the eligibility issues during basketball season, its hard to believe a coach wouldn't be aware of this potential problem and get it taken care of. I don't know what the issue is or if it's true. But, it could wreck the season for a few girls who have put in a lot of long hours and hard work toward their sport.
It's enough to make a person sick.
The player in question, if it's the one everyone is pointing to, is a key member on the team. If she's ineligible, it is a huge deal. We're not talking about a kid sitting on the bench.
Hopefully, some questions will be answered in the next day or so. I have my fingers crossed that the player has been eligible. If she's not, maybe the Arkansas Activities Association will give El Dorado the Conway treatment and not make the Lady Wildcats forfeit all of their games.
Hopefully, we won't get the Guy-Perkins treatment, which could ruin the season.
With the way AAA has handled things this year, you have no way of knowing how it will rule.
I guess we'll all have to stay tuned.

No more lazy days

Call me lazy all you want but I believe I've earned a little break. I sure took one, too.
I haven't covered an event since the semifinals of the state tournament. I've worked in the office, done a lot of telephone interviews and such, but I haven't been to a game in a few weeks.
Truth is, putting the All-Area stuff together for girls basketball is fairly hectic. After you figure out who is on the team, you have to get stats and comments from coaches.
The most stressful part for me is setting up the photo. It's not easy getting five girls from five different towns together at one time. I was fortunate this year as all of the girls were incredibly cooperative.
In fact, this year's group of finalists - El Dorado's K.K. Woods, Norphlet's Ellana White, Strong's Maranda Parker, Parkers Chapel's Dana Gray and Smackover's Kendra Marsh - couldn't have been any more easy to work with. They even wore the costumes I bought for the photo.
Unfortunately, that didn't work out as I hoped as the clothes on the models didn't fit my athletes the same way. Even worse, now I'm stuck with the costumes because the local shop no longer buys used items.
Anybody want to buy a ninja suit?
Anyway, I'm almost done with the All-Area stuff. We met last week to pick out the Golden Triangle Team and I'll put that together this week to close the book on basketball.
Then, it'll be out of the office and to the park for track, soccer, softball, etc.
I guess I'm looking forward to it. Not really.
But, once I get out there, I'll get into it. There will be a story or two that really gets me going and then it'll be fun.
Before I leave basketball, though, I was disappointed in the All-State setup. The disparity in the number of selections for bigger classifications compared to small classes is alarming. It's still a nice honor if you make the team but if you don't and you're at a small school, you can't take it that seriously.
Finally, I talked to Tim Cooper at the Democrat-Gazette last week. I was hoping to send him some nominations for the paper's All-Arkansas basketball edition.
He told me he's not doing it this year. He then said he believes the team has already been selected.
I hope some of you coaches got your players' names out there. But, it sounds like our area might get the shaft.
Let's hope not.