Orange Lutheran outside hitter Lauren Corp – Gatorade’s California Player of the Year and OCVarsity’s county player of the year — has been named one of 150 All-Americans by PrepVolleyball.com.

Here is how the Web site’s John Tawa described his decision-making in an e-mail to media around the country:

Agony & ecstasy. There simply is no other way to describe the process of selecting high school All Americans. That’s why I think I’ll be repeating these lines to introduce this story every year. On the one hand, we are thrilled to recognize 150 deserving players from 41 states as 2008 PrepVolleyball.com All Americans. On the other, there are always too many talented kids and not enough spots for all of them. Tough choices had to be made.

How was the All American list developed? I started formulating the list back in October and November as I was working on the Gatorade Player of the Year awards for the 49 states that play volleyball (sorry, Vermont) plus the District of Columbia. Then, in December, I sent multiple e-mails to high school coaches and posted on the Girls Volleyball Message Board that I was seeking nominees for High School All American, making clear the following:

To be a High School All-American, you must have made a massive impact on your high school team. “Massive” is subjective, but at a minimum requires that you be the best player on your team and one of the top 3-5 players in your state regardless of class, except for volleyball hotbeds like California, Texas, Indiana and Illinois, where you must be among the 10 best HIGH SCHOOL players regardless of
class.

The nominations poured in, each advancing the cause of one player or another. They all had accomplished great things during the high school year and were worthy of recognition. But, alas, I could only choose the 150 players I thought made the greatest impact on their teams and their states. I created a massive list of those nominated and added about a hundred more from All-State and All-Area lists that were published in newspapers or on coaches association websites. States that don’t pick All-State teams made my job in those states, like California, much tougher.

Then, I picked those players that absolutely had to be on the list, giving deference to class year (seniors got preference over juniors who got preference over sophomores, etc.) and to the choices made by the local sportswriters (in consultation with area coaches) or coaches associations, and giving weight to team success. If decisions were made at the state or local level to prefer one player to another, I usually did not substitute my judgment even if I would have liked to based on my information or personal observation.

After narrowing the list to 190 or so must-be All Americans, I sent out several e-mails to coaches whose opinions I valued in areas where I wasn’t totally sure about my choices. Phone calls were made,
journalists were consulted, all in an effort to make the All-American list the best it could be.

Finally, after agonizing over the selections, we got down to 150. Below you will find the breakdown of our selections by class year and state. For you conspiracy theorists out there, at no time until after the list was determined did I look to see what the breakdown was. I picked the players I thought made the greatest impact in 2008 and let the chips fall where they may.

I have felt pressure in the past few years to expand the All American list beyond 150 players. There are certainly more than that number who had great fall seasons. But the more the list expands, the less
meaningful the distinction becomes. So, it shall remain at 150 in perpetuity.

Thank you to all the coaches who contributed their views and provided data to help compile this list. And congratulations to the All-Americans for their great seasons and to everyone else who plays
this great game.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.