Barry Lewis: All-State questions and answers
BY BARRY LEWIS World Sports Writer
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
12/25/12 at 2:49 AM
Go to Barry Lewis' BlogOriginal Print Headline: All-State questions and answers
How was the team selected?
Forms were sent to all high schools and all head coaches were asked to nominate their players. During the past month, there also were a few reminders to coaches to send in their nominations. All players were eligible, not just seniors.
This season, there are five underclassmen on the first team - Wagoner's Lawrence Evitt, Midwest City Carl Albert's Steven Thompson, Oklahoma City McGuinness' Jacob Lewis, Oklahoma City Douglass' Deondre Clark and Sallisaw's Sinue Rodriguez, who also was on the team last year. The second team includes three juniors and a sophomore.
A player did not have to be nominated by his coach to be considered.
However, a coach's nomination is often very important to whether a player is selected, particularly for first-team honors. I made the final decisions on the All-State honors as well as the area All-World position rankings plus the All-Metro honors that were published Sunday.
The decisions came after reviewing each nomination and consulting other World writers, correspondents and some coaches. A few nominations were supplemented with DVDs.
Why did you select Jenks' Trey'Vonne Barr'e as player of the year?
It was a very close decision between Barr'e and East Central's Stanvon Taylor, who was named the Metro player of the year.
Other finalists were Evitt, Thompson and Norman North's Jordan Evans.
I agree with the case that World sports writer Mike Brown makes for Barr'e: "It's hard to argue anyone had more impact as Jenks won its first state football title in five years." Barr'e led Class 6A in rushing yardage (2,237), points (198) and total TDs (32).
He averaged 9.8 yards per carry and played his best in the most important games. His four highest rushing totals - all over 200 yards - were against Broken Arrow to decide the district title and against Edmond North, Union and Norman North in the final three playoff rounds.
Barr'e broke open the quarterfinal win over Edmond North with two long runs in the fourth quarter. He broke Norman North's spirit by racing 87 yards to set up the first TD and scoring three times on breakaway runs in the second quarter. He made it all look ridiculously easy. And remember this - Jenks had a chance to beat nationally ranked DeSoto, Texas, until Barr'e was sidelined at halftime. While it is clear that Jenks had many impact athletes, it is equally clear that Barr'e was the one who put the Trojans head and shoulders above the rest of the 6A field.
The performance of Barr'e in the playoffs reminded Brown of another Jenks player, Rocky Calmus, who rushed for 866 yards in four playoff wins in 1997 when he shared player of the year honors with Stillwater's Matt Holliday.
Why was Jenks' Allan Trimble named as coach of the year?
Trimble edged Midwest City Carl Albert's Gary Rose for the honor.
Both overcame a lot of adversity this season to bring their tradition-rich programs back to glory. In a rarity, Jenks began the season in an underdog role. In the preseason, none of the eight World staffers on our prediction panel selected Jenks to win the gold ball. For the first time in two decades, Jenks was not favored to win its district.
Jenks started 0-2 for the first time since 1986 and was without a few key players early in the season. The Trojans, however, never lost focus and steadily improved every week, eventually peaking at the right time. In many years, Rose would have won the award as he led the Titans to the title after a 1-5 start.
How many teams and classifications are represented on the World's first team?
Twenty schools filled the 26 first-team slots. Jenks and Union led with three selection each. Carl Albert and East Central each had two representatives. Class 6A had 11 players, 5A and 4A had six apiece, 3A had two and 2A had one.
Can you explain why in some cases there seems to be some inconsistency between the area position rankings and the All-State or All-Metro selections?
The goal for All-State and All-Metro teams is to place the 26 best players on the first team and the next 26 best on the second team or as close to that as possible. To achieve that, sometimes a player is listed at a position where he excelled, even if it was just in limited action or it may not be his best position. For example, Fort Gibson's Jake Gandara's top position is running back, but to get both him and Owasso running back Scottie Prealow on the team, Gandara was placed at defensive back. Veratile players have an edge in the All-State process. A similar situation occurred at quarterback with Thompson and Lewis. Thompson also was a playoff standout in the secondary, so he was placed there on the first team.
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