I totally understand why you as a Piketon fan would be upset with my list only having two Redstreaks, but the reason is quite simple. Piketon would have easily had three guys, but after Caleb Southworth was declared ineligible, they really didn’t really have a top 15 guy in my opinion. As far as the coaches go, they are in a little different situation. As you said, Piketon went 12-2 and finished outright second-place. The coaches are going to fill more obligated to vote another Piketon player; whereas on my list, I did not fill Piketon automatically deserved another player just because Southworth would have filled that slot. I felt a player like Drew Davis who played a huge role in Zane Trace winning the league was more deserving.
Don’t get me wrong – James Lewis is a solid player who has helped Piketon in many ways, but as far as the 12-2 record goes without Southworth, I felt that had more to do with their great depth of athletes (including Lewis of course) and the fact they have one of elite players in all of southern Ohio.
I feel you have your Unioto players – Shane Maier and Brick Davis – in the wrong order on your list.
I do not totally disagree with you on this point. I did struggle with this decision, and in a lot of ways, I feel Davis is a much more complete player than Maier. The one thing I did take into consideration when making this decision is the positions they play. Unioto, like several teams in this year’s league, struggled with consistent guard play. I felt Davis had more opportunities to post more numbers, but Maier – being a post – was more at the mercy of the guard play. I also felt even though the league wasn’t very good this year, it did have several quality big men. Maier posted some solid numbers in a league that had all-league post players on six other teams.
I noticed no Adena player made the list this year. Would you be in favor of a rule that would give every team a kid on at least third-team?
No, I think this would be a poor rule. There are some years when a team simply does not have a top-15 player. On the other side, I feel a rule that gives an automatic number based on where you would finish would be an equally poor rule. This does not allow the voters to pick the best 15 players. Certain teams may have more depth in talent which allows them to finish higher, but another team may have two great players but very little help and this team could finish lower. Bottom line – there should be no guarantee or no limit of any kind. The voters should be able to vote the best players.
Where do you feel Maxwell ranks in terms of the best players in the last 20 years?
This was an interesting question that really got me thinking about many players that I played against, coached against, and now have watched. Without getting too in-depth in what my list would be, I would say in the last 20 years, Maxwell would – in my opinion – be the 9th or 10th best POY in the league, and somewhere around 15th or 16th on my overall list. A big problem in comparing players throughout time is the difference in competition in the SVC from one year to another, and it is tough to compare a guard to a big man. Maxwell has definitely been an outstanding player and a pleasure to watch.