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 cannot compare Simmons to Leachman! Simmons and Jourdan are from the same state and raced head-to-head multiple times before NXN. Also NXN was way more competitive than Footlocker, no comparison.
2023 NXN cross country champion JoJo Jourdon (Wake Forest commit) prepares for his senior year high school track season in Salt Lake City, Utah at 4,265ft al...
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).
it’s too bad he’s a complete @sshole. ask 90% of the people who coach in the state.
“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.
Perfectly fine with that. Thank you Gatorade.
Then don’t pick guys who could barely graduate high school and or speak english in the past and act like it’s some honorable award year after year. Absolute joke and the guy selecting the athletes has completely messed the prestige of this award up.
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).
it’s too bad he’s a complete @sshole. ask 90% of the people who coach in the state.
This had to be sarcasm….no one likes Rich. If you kiss his butt then he shows your athletes love if not you get hosed. A lot of examples across the country with this Gatorade drama. Get him out of it.
Do we have any actual athlete of the year and coach of the year awards that pick the best people for cross country that season? I'm not seeing how the team that lost deserved all the post season awards.
“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.
Perfectly fine with that. Thank you Gatorade.
Problem is, despite the language here, the Gatorade award has always been only about athletic performance. (Across all sports) Only the past 2 years, when the winners of the national race were not clear cut best runners, has it gone elsewhere.
If they were consistent, Addie Ritzenhein would not have won either. They would have claimed that Leachman and Forsyth were the best runners all year, but just had bad days at NXN.
It reminds me of people getting into National Honor Society in high school. If you went to an average public high school it’s easy AF to get in but a blue ribbon school there is a lot more competition
Per a simple Milesplit search in head to head rankings of the two, Danny is 13-1 v. JoJo at distances 3k and longer.
Winning NXN is its own trophy. No need to have other awards that automatically go to the winner of NXN. They may usually be the same winner, but it would be pointless to have it be automatic against all other factors.
Picking Simmons for POY just doesn’t align at all with the girls’ pick for Ritzenhein (who I think is very deserving of POY, by the way). However, one would argue that Leachman and Simmons both had extremely dominant seasons that were certainly comparable to one another, yet Leachman did not receive the POY like Simmons. They both set multiple course records, won nearly every race they competed in, but they also both had off races at NXN, finishing 13th and 15th. This is very confusing, especially considering Leachman bounced back and won Footlocker, which Simmons did not do. If Gatorade is giving the award to Simmons, they should be giving it to Leachman because those two were very similarly dominant across the board this fall. The pick for Simmons doesn’t make any sense based on the girls’ pick. (Again, not taking away from Ritzenhein. She is very deserving and had an amazing season).
Picking Simmons for POY just doesn’t align at all with the girls’ pick for Ritzenhein (who I think is very deserving of POY, by the way). However, one would argue that Leachman and Simmons both had extremely dominant seasons that were certainly comparable to one another, yet Leachman did not receive the POY like Simmons. They both set multiple course records, won nearly every race they competed in, but they also both had off races at NXN, finishing 13th and 15th. This is very confusing, especially considering Leachman bounced back and won Footlocker, which Simmons did not do. If Gatorade is giving the award to Simmons, they should be giving it to Leachman because those two were very similarly dominant across the board this fall. The pick for Simmons doesn’t make any sense based on the girls’ pick. (Again, not taking away from Ritzenhein. She is very deserving and had an amazing season).
It’s a great point in the abstract. But it’s different people being compared. I’d say there remains a strong NXN winner bias and Ritzenhein has a much stronger resume than Jourdon this year or Sahlman last year.
Danny is a great runner who won this award two years in a row in part because the NXN winner didn’t have a dominant winning season before NXN. Ritzenhein won NXN and had a much better resume of wins than Jourdon.
If you had another nationals the week after FL on a predictable course in good weather, I think most people still pick Simmons to win. Not sure about the girls race.
Look what they did to the Illinois top runner. He beat the kid that gatorade selected for Illinois in all 3 races against each other and had the fastest time at the state meet but in smaller school division. It was a division state record and his NXR performance was an Illinois all time record. The illinois winner that gatorade selected was cited for having a 5.68 gpa and an eagle scout. Guess that means something for him but not Drew Griffith who was head and shoulder above Simmons in the classroom and philanthropy. Terrible consistency!!!
Like, okay he's a good kid and all with good grades, but is this really such an exemplary resumé that it surpasses all others who competed in the country?
Sarah Baxter won with a 3.0 GPA. It's not really about grades it is about the sport first and foremost.
Ritzenhein broke course records all season and her only loss of the entire season was her third place at NXRSW (3 seconds behind 1st). The SW region went 1-2-4-6-10 at NXN. Leachman finished behind 5 girls from the SW region.
Picking Simmons for POY just doesn’t align at all with the girls’ pick for Ritzenhein (who I think is very deserving of POY, by the way). However, one would argue that Leachman and Simmons both had extremely dominant seasons that were certainly comparable to one another, yet Leachman did not receive the POY like Simmons. They both set multiple course records, won nearly every race they competed in, but they also both had off races at NXN, finishing 13th and 15th. This is very confusing, especially considering Leachman bounced back and won Footlocker, which Simmons did not do. If Gatorade is giving the award to Simmons, they should be giving it to Leachman because those two were very similarly dominant across the board this fall. The pick for Simmons doesn’t make any sense based on the girls’ pick. (Again, not taking away from Ritzenhein. She is very deserving and had an amazing season).
Ritzenhein dominated every race except for NXRSW. Leachman's bad race (15th at NXN, behind 5 girls from NXRSW) was much worse than Ritzenhein's worst race (3rd at NXRSW within 3 seconds of 1st). Ritzenhein also set multiple course records throughout the season. I don't understand how anyone could argue that Leachman had a better season.
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