City Section Addresses Honor Code : Coaches to Select Postseason All-Star Teams Based on Leagues

The City Section, moving to fine-tune a sweeping releaguing plan that took effect last fall, will direct coaches to select postseason all-star teams based on leagues rather than conferences, City Commissioner Hal Harkness said Wednesday.

The proposal, submitted by Taft football Coach Tom Stevenson, will go into effect before postseason basketball teams are selected.

Harkness said that he will issue the directive to avoid a repeat of the postseason selection process in football in which coaches picked all-star teams for the first time since the City realigned its membership into 6 conferences of 2 leagues.

In that instance, coaches in the Valley Pac-8 Conference, which includes the Mid-Valley and East Valley leagues, selected an all-conference team. However, their colleagues in the Northwest Valley Conference picked all-league teams from the West Valley and North Valley leagues.

Harkness considers the selection process important because of the impact it has on All-City teams, which are chosen by the Amateur Athletic Foundation. Players excluded from all-league teams are ineligible for All-City consideration.

The problem is particularly acute in so-called split conferences: those in which one league plays at the 4-A Division level and the other at the 3-A. The Northwest Valley Conference in basketball comprises the 4-A North Valley League and the 3-A West Valley League.

“Because of the All-City teams we can’t pick all-conference teams,” Harkness said. “Frankly, we never addressed this before. It’s just something that came up. We need direction and I’m going to voice my opinion as how we should operate.”

That comes as good news to Stevenson.

“Obviously, an all-conference team is an invalid concept when you have mixed leagues, but if the City said ‘pick an all-conference team,’ then we would have done it,” he said. “But nobody said anything. There was no direction and we need direction on this.”

Stevenson and his fellow conference coaches received media criticism for selecting all-league teams from leagues comprising only 4 teams. Nevertheless, Stevenson said that he favors the all-league concept.

“We want to be represented by our league because the City chooses playoff teams by league and everything is geared toward league, so an all-league team is the logical step,” he said. “Besides, it helps build a positive attitude toward our program. If you get eight to 10 kids on all-league, they like the recognition.”