Sometimes I Just Can’t Understand

Working every day in athletics you get to see a lot of things, but rarely are there things that I see that I can’t fully understand.

I understand when the better team doesn’t win, I understand when a team on the bubble is left out of the playoffs for some reason, I understand when a key player gets hurt how it affects the team.

Yesterday brought out a new level of I can’t understand. I know how it happened I just can’t figure out the why it happened.

Lindsey Newcombe was named the American Southwest Conference West Division MVP for the second straight year. It was a deserved honor as she was an easy choice for the top player in the conference. I guess I should explain the ASC award process.

Coaches nominate their own players for all-ASC West Division. These players are then put on a ballot and the other seven coaches (you can’t vote for players on your own team) in the ASC West rank their top 10 players. The five players with the most points are selected as first team all-ASC West and the next five are named second-team and anyone else who gets a vote is named honorable mention.

The top five from the ASC West are then put on a ballot with the top five players from the ASC East and then all of the coaches from all of the teams in the conference rank their top 5 players and that is how the overall all-ASC team is selected.

It would be easy to see if one side was dominant and they had four or five players on the all-ASC team. That would not be hard to see. But this year there were three from the ASC East and two from the ASC West. Now mind you, seven different sets of eyes vote for the all-ASC than do the all-ASC West, but it is hard to fathom how someone that was named MVP in the ASC West had two other ASC West players picked over her for the team.

Oh well … strange things happen every day, some are just more strange than others.

The sun has come out and it is time for some spring sports. I hope you can make it out over the next few weeks.

The baseball team returns home this weekend after two weeks on the road. HSU will play eight straight games at Hunter Field.

Softball goes back on the road to the ASC First Pitch Tournament this weekend. The Cowgirls fought the weather to get three games in last weekend and they are off to a 5-0 start.

The track teams will get under way in a couple of weeks with their outdoor season and the golf teams have each played a tournament.

The tennis teams have both started off strong and both look like contenders for the ASC West crown again.