Someone said to me the other day they're still not sure if it's a good or bad thing to end up in the Cornerkicks blog. Moments later, someone else responded by saying there is nothing wrong with stressing accountability and conversation that could lead to innovative ideas.
Here is another response I received from a reader in regards to a recent blog:
"Here is a question for you, and it goes along with potentially what the IHSSCA may do to spice things up for the sport as well as how one might counteract a weak schedule. You, as well as several other newspaper reporters, constantly receive criticism for your Top 10 or Top 20 lists. However, the NSCAA has Regional and National rankings that coaches contribute to and rarely receive criticism. What do you think about the IHSSCA coaches creating a weekly state ranking poll? Logistically possible? Good or bad idea?"
I remember one reporter saying that he's seen more teams play this past fall than most high school coaches have seen in their careers. I agreed. Most coaches play the same teams year after year. And yes, whether you want to believe this, there is a strong 'Good Old Boys' coaching club out there (meaning some refuse to play up-and-coming programs and a number who are bias).
For years, I've said promotion is always a good thing for soccer - it needs it. I play a role in StudentSportsSoccer.com/RIVALS national rankings, and I can tell you there are a number of states that have coaches polls. But with that said, once again you are going to have coaches voting on teams they have never seen - just as is the case with the sectional seeding meetings. Unlike the USA Today college football poll - where coaches vote - high school soccer games are not blanketed on TV like college football.
I can tell you, next year the Pepsi Showdown is not allowing coaches to rank and seed the tournament's teams. It has the past four years. Next fall's tournament will be seeded by reporters from the Sun-Times, Tribune and Daily Herald.
As for the NSCAA rankings, they don't receive criticism for two reasons. One, most of the regional reps are well-respected coaches, who have been around the block a couple times. Secondly, I don't think many people really pay attention to those rankings outside of a handful of coaches. Seriously, how many coaches in the state look at the rankings each week? I would say less than 20 percent (and that's probably high).
The biggest problem I face at the start of each year is this - ranking the Top 10 teams or ranking the teams I think are going to make it to the state finals? This is where the IHSA, as IHSA assistant executive director Beth Sauser told me last year, doesn't care. "We don't care about the rankings," Sauser said.
I rank the Top 10 teams.
But some people still have the 1980s old-school thinking that if you make it to the state finals, you are automatically considered one of the top eight teams in the state.
So with all of that said, another poll would add promotion to a sport that needs it. Whether it will have more creditability than the IHSSCA Player of the Year voting - who knows? Remember, two years ago a majority of the coaches in the room voted for a player they had never seen and against a player they had never seen.
And after that, I had countless coaches remind me that they look at newspapers' all-area teams more than they do the all-sectional and all-state teams.
- Joe Trost
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