This is quite shocking.....Rich Gonzalez has had a flawless record to date of choosing the correct NXN At-Large teams as well as picking the correct Gatorade Player of the Year. I personally think it's great that one man is involved with so many important things within the sport (NXN, GPOY, California XC/Track, Arcadia, and even Woodbridge).
I have nothing against Simmons and wish him well in track and in NCAA. Also important at NXN was despite his poor start 13th was still #1 in team race.
The issue I do have is that xc is one of few sports that has a championship race with fl and nxn. This allows the issue of best runner and best team to be settled in a race.
Gatorade should pick one of the winners, not choose based on opinion. It would be like Michigan beating Washington in the championship football game, and Gatorade giving #1 team award to Georgia, since they were really the best team.
I have nothing against Simmons and wish him well in track and in NCAA. Also important at NXN was despite his poor start 13th was still #1 in team race.
The issue I do have is that xc is one of few sports that has a championship race with fl and nxn. This allows the issue of best runner and best team to be settled in a race.
Gatorade should pick one of the winners, not choose based on opinion. It would be like Michigan beating Washington in the championship football game, and Gatorade giving #1 team award to Georgia, since they were really the best team.
I still don’t get how Simmons could win Gatorade but not Leachman. Same story except Leachman went on to win Foot Locker and Simmons ended his season.
You may or may not agree with this reasoning, but I think a strong case could be made that Danny was seen as the best all year and then NXN became a wacky course from the terrible weather and Gatorade decided to not have one bad result on a crazy course decide the winner for the guys.
“We expect more from our athletes, that’s why the Gatorade Player of the Year program recognizes the nation’s most outstanding high school student-athletes for their athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character. That’s what makes this award the most prestigious honor in High School sports.”
I doubt the award for best student in Chemistry takes into account if the student can run also run a 4:20 mile, or won the state title in tennis. It's just your skill in Chemistry that matters. There is enough rewards for being a great student. I think it is stupid to say that if you aren't that smart, that Gatorade won't recognize you as the best runner.
this award really should have either gone to drew griffith or jojo jourdon this year. jojo jourdon didn't win anything despite winning the biggest race this season (he wasn't named gatorade player of the year for utah). drew griffith had a phenomenal season, 4.4 gpa, volunteer services, plus the clean win at footlocker, Good Citizenship Award by the State of Pennsylvania, they both really deserved it over simmons.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
Jourdon lost to Simmons twice head to head and it wasn't close. He also ran the same course in different races 2 other times and was far slower than Simmons. He also got beat by 3 others and Woodbridge, and was 4th at Timpanogos invitational.
JoJo's a very good runner, but he definitely doesn't deserve to be runner of the year. He earned an NXN title, but that's it.
“We expect more from our athletes, that’s why the Gatorade Player of the Year program recognizes the nation’s most outstanding high school student-athletes for their athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character. That’s what makes this award the most prestigious honor in High School sports.”
I doubt the award for best student in Chemistry takes into account if the student can run also run a 4:20 mile, or won the state title in tennis. It's just your skill in Chemistry that matters. There is enough rewards for being a great student. I think it is stupid to say that if you aren't that smart, that Gatorade won't recognize you as the best runner.
That’s my point they claim this award is about all attributes but then actually don’t give the award to heads favorite. Then screw other kids across the country. What a joke.
This is quite shocking.....Rich Gonzalez has had a flawless record to date of choosing the correct NXN At-Large teams as well as picking the correct Gatorade Player of the Year. I personally think it's great that one man is involved with so many important things within the sport (NXN, GPOY, California XC/Track, Arcadia, and even Woodbridge).
We sense the sarcasm he punts into the stands on multiple levels every single year.
At a more straightforward level, could there be a Gatorade bias just in favor of NXN over Footlocker winners? They're the "official sports fuel provider" of NXN. That could (conceivably, possibly) play into Simmons over Griffith, as well as A. Ritzenhein over Leachman (though that one is genuinely a toss-up IMO).
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
I doubt the award for best student in Chemistry takes into account if the student can run also run a 4:20 mile, or won the state title in tennis. It's just your skill in Chemistry that matters. There is enough rewards for being a great student. I think it is stupid to say that if you aren't that smart, that Gatorade won't recognize you as the best runner.
The Rhodes scholarship has long had a sports/athletics component (although it looks like that was expanded to include the arts at some point), but the idea isn't unprecedented.
I doubt the award for best student in Chemistry takes into account if the student can run also run a 4:20 mile, or won the state title in tennis. It's just your skill in Chemistry that matters. There is enough rewards for being a great student. I think it is stupid to say that if you aren't that smart, that Gatorade won't recognize you as the best runner.
The Rhodes scholarship has long had a sports/athletics component (although it looks like that was expanded to include the arts at some point), but the idea isn't unprecedented.
DEI changes over the past couple of years made it far more unqualified - there are 16 sections picking 2 people each, and obviously 1 will be a DEI pick, while it was 8 / 4 before so there would only be 8 DEI picks instead of over 16.
You may or may not agree with this reasoning, but I think a strong case could be made that Danny was seen as the best all year and then NXN became a wacky course from the terrible weather and Gatorade decided to not have one bad result on a crazy course decide the winner for the guys.
Just wanted to add that I’m a big fan of speed ratings and Griffith had 4 ratings this year higher than any of Simmons’ races.
That said, both lost a race this year and neither broke 200. There just wasn’t a dominant runner this year to make it clear cut and an easy call.
I doubt the award for best student in Chemistry takes into account if the student can run also run a 4:20 mile, or won the state title in tennis. It's just your skill in Chemistry that matters. There is enough rewards for being a great student. I think it is stupid to say that if you aren't that smart, that Gatorade won't recognize you as the best runner.
That’s my point they claim this award is about all attributes but then actually don’t give the award to heads favorite. Then screw other kids across the country. What a joke.
That's very different. That is a scholarship, and more general in nature. My point is if you are going to give an award called "Player of the year" of a SPECIFIC sport, it should be who is the best at that sport.
I mentioned this last year, but there is a related problem with it not being just the sport, and that is how much does other stuff matter? Who decides how much? What does taking "character" into account mean? Is being great in Chemistry better than working with the homeless? Why or why not? Is working with the homeless better than supporting veterans or the police (which may not be popular with the deciders)? Is being a young leader in the Jewish community going to be a plus or a minus in the deciders eyes? After the decision, how much transparency is there for others to see what matters and how much? I think is the answer is zero. If a XC runner is recognized as the best student in the entire nation, but only 20th in XC, is that better than 2nd best in XC and 10th best student at their high school? Just leave all that stuff out. Otherwise is just has the feel of "Well, we happen to like this person." And then they can pick and choose if adding abstract and unproveable things like "character" help the case (it really matters, it really does!!) or doesn't (he just he was the best runner, that's what matters).
But in the end, Gatorade can do whatever they want. It's their award. And every year I can say I don't like their criteria. And then forget about it until next year, because I don't put much stock in awards like these. I care about who won the races.
That’s my point they claim this award is about all attributes but then actually don’t give the award to heads favorite. Then screw other kids across the country. What a joke.
That's very different. That is a scholarship, and more general in nature. My point is if you are going to give an award called "Player of the year" of a SPECIFIC sport, it should be who is the best at that sport.
I mentioned this last year, but there is a related problem with it not being just the sport, and that is how much does other stuff matter? Who decides how much? What does taking "character" into account mean? Is being great in Chemistry better than working with the homeless? Why or why not? Is working with the homeless better than supporting veterans or the police (which may not be popular with the deciders)? Is being a young leader in the Jewish community going to be a plus or a minus in the deciders eyes? After the decision, how much transparency is there for others to see what matters and how much? I think is the answer is zero. If a XC runner is recognized as the best student in the entire nation, but only 20th in XC, is that better than 2nd best in XC and 10th best student at their high school? Just leave all that stuff out. Otherwise is just has the feel of "Well, we happen to like this person." And then they can pick and choose if adding abstract and unproveable things like "character" help the case (it really matters, it really does!!) or doesn't (he just he was the best runner, that's what matters).
But in the end, Gatorade can do whatever they want. It's their award. And every year I can say I don't like their criteria. And then forget about it until next year, because I don't put much stock in awards like these. I care about who won the races.
Sorry, I responded to the wrong message. I meant to respond to the Rhodes scholarship one. Obviously I was never a Rhodes Scholar.
“We expect more from our athletes, that’s why the Gatorade Player of the Year program recognizes the nation’s most outstanding high school student-athletes for their athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character. That’s what makes this award the most prestigious honor in High School sports.”
Thankfully, there is a prestigious award and experience given to not just the best athlete. there are plenty of existing awards for that.
Gatorade POY is about athletics, academics, community service. Sometimes the very best athlete doesn’t meet the additional standards of Gatorade.
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