The intricacies and politics of all-star voting won’t be a burden for Oahu Interscholastic Association coaches any more.
The league’s athletic directors council recently voted to end the tradition of coaches selecting all-stars for team sports. The decision reverts the process back to media, in all likelihood. In the early decades of the Rural Oahu Interscholastic Association, Interscholastic League of Honolulu and the merged OIA, all-league selections were done by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
“I don’t know when it changed. When I was playing, the media picked it,” OIA Executive Director Raymond Fujino said on Wednesday afternoon.
Fujino played basketball at Kaimuki in the late 1970s and later coached the team to a state crown.
“My philosophy was always you don’t want to put an emphasis on all-stars,” he said. “It’s nice if you’re picked.”
The ILH, at last check, will continue to select its own all-stars.
(Correction: Fujino was incorrectly quoted about who selected OIA all-stars. Media always selected all-stars until the league took over the process sometime in the 1980s.)
Please do not let scoringlive.com staff have any part of picking anything that has to do with sports. They can vote for best tasting malasada or loco moco plate but please leave the sports all-star voting to people that actually played/playing the sport.
Its a bummer that coaches no longer vote because they are the only ones with credibility and the eye for talent. Media is a joke!
What was the mechanism before? Did all the coaches get into a room and debate who the top players were with the media then getting the final say?
In the past coaches would vote for their own players. Coach of the Year usually went to the coach that won the league. As coaches you don’t see every team every week so it would be hard to vote for someone that you may see once or twice.
If the media does their homework I believe that the outcome would be based on the teams’ performance throughout the season. I am sure that the media will ask for assistance from the coaches.
Coaches cannot vote for their own players but recommend from their opponents teams. They hold an forum for open discussion where they collaborate, evaluate, discuss the selections. They spend countless hours reviewing film in preparation for their opponents as well as evaluating their own film after the game for analyzation, correction for their teams. It would seem to me that they have a pretty good idea of player personnel. Ray Fujino’s comment on back in da day “Players picking All-Stars”, NEVA HAPPEN!” what he talking about? he losing his memory already! Now that Coaches don’t have control over the selections, hopefully it won’t lead to unscrupulous Coaches running up the score like how Martinez and Suaki Livai used to do where the justification was “Stats”. Agree with “Anywaaaay” post above, for example, media would pick FB All State players who weren’t even 1st team All Conference, disrespecting the coaches selections. From what I have seen in the past, The Coaches select the Coach of the Year to a deserving Coach who did a good job and it wasn’t always the winning team. case in pt here, for the Red D1 Conference this past season, the COY was Hauoli Wong of Kailua who he and his Staff did a remarkable job of turning around their program from a winless prior season to a #3 conference finish. The bottom line of all this? “another BoneHead OIA decision!
Coaches should make recommendations but when you see players from a team that didn’t go anywhere come up on all star lists. Or see top teams only have very minimal representation on the list it’s a head scratcher. I think way back when it was the advertiser and bulletin it was okay. Generally the lists were similar.
I for one, do not see how successful the team is, to be a major consideration in selecting an All-Star. It should be based on their individual ability at the position. Many times there excellent players on losing teams and I mean teams that do poorly. The player has no control over the quality of the players attending their geographical school (unless the school recruits!). Having said that, the team that does well is successful for a reason; they get good players and/or good coaching! So, selecting from winning teams is a consideration too.
anywaaaays!! and bumbuchas, You guys are Alll Right,
afriend, you have no idea what you’re talking about. i’ve actually coached in the OIA back when I was still working in the DOE. Coaches can’t vote for their own players for all-star teams.
go back to the four division Leeward-Central-Windward-Honolulu
Only football does the gathering of coaches thing to select all stars. All the other sports, coaches submit players from other teams and not their own. It gets added up by points, just like how they do the top 10. True a lot of coaches choose the players from the best team, and even the coach of the best team. The big issue came up in volleyball, where Moanalua ran through the OIA to the title and had NO players on the first team. Also coaches sometimes leave great players completely off their entire ballot, because of personal biases or dislike for a coach, school, philosophy, etc.
OIA Insider, you are correct. Red East softball is another example of bias voting.
Spot on, Former OIA Insider!
OIA Insider: Curious about your statement that Moanalua volleyball got shut out in OIA all-star voting. Was this prior to this past school year? Just wondering because Moanalua had the Player of the Year in both girls (Kruze) and boys (Matautia) OIA East all-star teams.
The media should NEVER select the ALL-STARs. The only thing HawaiiPrepWorld got right is this blog. None of these guys thought Kahuku stood a chance and look what happen. Leave the ALL STAR selection to the guys who see these kids everyday. C’mon man
Too bad the actual coaches are never the ones filling out the all star votes. More like equip mgrs, team moms, water boys, etc
Does it really matter who is an all-star? There are many who weren’t first team all stars that went on to play college ball and earned degrees. No matter the system, it will be biased in one way or another. Would you rather have a computer do it based on stats? Then the team with less great players will make it. If you go based on wins it is usually the team with the best players/coaches. That is part of the fun and the frustration because everyone has an opinion and can show why a player is deserving. Why not just name all stars like volleyball, softball without saying first team, second team and honorable mention? Anyways, enjoy sports, support the athletes no matter what school they attend and be sportsmanlike as a player, coach and fan. That is how we show Aloha spirit and teach our young ones the lessons in life to be learned and not that being a first team all star is the pinnacle of his young life. Sports is a vehicle to help them learn values, build relationships, develop character and possibly pay for their education (in full or in part). I can’t wait for another year of High School sports in Hawaii. Let’s all enjoy it and remember that it is for the kids and not for us who have already had our time. Aloha and see you in the bleachers.