40 yard dash

GW, Grafton, Charleston Catholic take top honors for best in WV athletics.

June 7, 2010 A few things never change with GEISAs Having spent 14 years now going blurry-eyed for days at a time while tabulating this newspaper's annual high school all-sports awards, I'd love to find the time to dig even deeper. By Dave Hickman Staff writer Advertiser Having spent 14 years now going blurry-eyed for days at a time while tabulating this newspaper's annual high school all-sports awards, I'd love to find the time to dig even deeper.

And one of these days, perhaps in retirement, I'll do it.

I'll dig into the archives prior to 1997, which was the first year we put together the Gazette Excellence In Sports Awards (GEISA), and come up with the schools that would have won in the 1980s or '70s or '60s or before. I'm betting Charleston High shows up. Or Ceredo-Kenova. Or Monongah or Athens or a bunch of other long-forgotten schools.

Then again, maybe not.

The one thing I've discovered over the years is that you just never know, at least until you actually do the math. Not that I spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I would never have guessed Grafton as the winner in Class AA this year.

Ditto George Washington in triple-A, although a quick check shows the Patriots had been knocking on the door for a long time. In fact, it's one of the few schools that have finished in the Top 10 every year we've been doing these ratings, including runner-up finishes three of the last four years. But who remembers second, right?

Anyway, there are always things that amaze me when I actually start putting pencil to paper and finger to calculator (and yes, I still do it that way). So just as a way of clearing some of those things out of my brain:

I will never be convinced that the point system we settled upon is the best. Nor has anyone ever presented me with a better one. We take the top eight teams in each sport, award them points 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 and add them up. Pretty simple. In the years when the final numbers in any class are really close, I'll recalculate them with a different point system (perhaps an extra point for a state title), but I don't think it's ever produced a different winner.

There are some inherent advantages or disadvantages for schools that excel in particular sports. For instance, don't try to build a dynasty on football or volleyball or cheerleading or wrestling or baseball or softball. A school can be absolutely great in one or two of those, but the sports are still worth just eight points max.

On the other hand, develop a good bunch of runners and you have something. If you do it on both the boys and girls side, you're looking at potential points in boys and girls track and boys and girls cross country. The same applies to a lesser degree in sports like tennis and swimming, where generally if the boys excel, so do the girls. And to a lesser degree the same is often (but certainly not always) true in soccer and basketball.

Size matters. Then again, sometimes it doesn't. Third and fourth place in Class AAA this year belonged to the largest and smallest schools in the division. The biggest, Parkersburg, which has seven all-sports titles, was third, while the smallest, Bridgeport, was a quarter-point behind.

Sure, there are other factors besides enrollment (urban vs. rural, private vs. public, etc.), but it's always been fascinating to look and see how the all-sports points compared to the enrollment. That's why later this week, when we publish the complete list of results in each of the three classes, we will list the schools from largest to smallest. Then it's easy to see who is doing more with less (and vice versa).

The difference in winning and losing can sometimes come down to a single game in a single sport. Sometimes it's even a single event in a single contest.

Take Grafton's Class AA win over Frankfort by 11/2 points.

Having spent 14 years now going blurry-eyed for days at a time while tabulating this newspaper's annual high school all-sports awards, I'd love to find the time to dig even deeper. And one of these days, perhaps in retirement, I'll do it.

I'll dig into the archives prior to 1997, which was the first year we put together the Gazette Excellence In Sports Awards (GEISA), and come up with the schools that would have won in the 1980s or '70s or '60s or before. I'm betting Charleston High shows up. Or Ceredo-Kenova. Or Monongah or Athens or a bunch of other long-forgotten schools.

Then again, maybe not.

The one thing I've discovered over the years is that you just never know, at least until you actually do the math. Not that I spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I would never have guessed Grafton as the winner in Class AA this year.

Ditto George Washington in triple-A, although a quick check shows the Patriots had been knocking on the door for a long time. In fact, it's one of the few schools that have finished in the Top 10 every year we've been doing these ratings, including runner-up finishes three of the last four years. But who remembers second, right?

Anyway, there are always things that amaze me when I actually start putting pencil to paper and finger to calculator (and yes, I still do it that way). So just as a way of clearing some of those things out of my brain:

I will never be convinced that the point system we settled upon is the best. Nor has anyone ever presented me with a better one. We take the top eight teams in each sport, award them points 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 and add them up. Pretty simple. In the years when the final numbers in any class are really close, I'll recalculate them with a different point system (perhaps an extra point for a state title), but I don't think it's ever produced a different winner.

There are some inherent advantages or disadvantages for schools that excel in particular sports. For instance, don't try to build a dynasty on football or volleyball or cheerleading or wrestling or baseball or softball. A school can be absolutely great in one or two of those, but the sports are still worth just eight points max.

On the other hand, develop a good bunch of runners and you have something. If you do it on both the boys and girls side, you're looking at potential points in boys and girls track and boys and girls cross country. The same applies to a lesser degree in sports like tennis and swimming, where generally if the boys excel, so do the girls. And to a lesser degree the same is often (but certainly not always) true in soccer and basketball.

Size matters. Then again, sometimes it doesn't. Third and fourth place in Class AAA this year belonged to the largest and smallest schools in the division. The biggest, Parkersburg, which has seven all-sports titles, was third, while the smallest, Bridgeport, was a quarter-point behind.

Sure, there are other factors besides enrollment (urban vs. rural, private vs. public, etc.), but it's always been fascinating to look and see how the all-sports points compared to the enrollment. That's why later this week, when we publish the complete list of results in each of the three classes, we will list the schools from largest to smallest. Then it's easy to see who is doing more with less (and vice versa).

The difference in winning and losing can sometimes come down to a single game in a single sport. Sometimes it's even a single event in a single contest.

Take Grafton's Class AA win over Frankfort by 11/2 points.

Back in late October, the Bearcats beat the Falcons 2-0 in a regional soccer match. Frankfort therefore got 21/2 points in the all-sports standings as one of the four regional finalists (fifth- through eighth-place points added and divided by four). Grafton went to the state tournament and got 51/2 points as a losing semifinalist (third- and fourth-place points added and divided by two). Reverse the outcome of that one game and Frankfort wins Class AA and Grafton is tied for second.

And if you're tired of complaints about private schools thumping public schools, well, the all-sports standings aren't much of a place for relief. Although this year did provide a bit of a ray of sunshine behind Charleston Catholic's record-setting performance.

Way back there in second place, for only the fourth time in 14 years, was a public school. Williamstown finished second and St. Marys third, both ahead of fourth-place Wheeling Central. Yes, Charleston Catholic (six) Wheeling Central (seven) and Parkersburg Catholic (one) have combined to win all 14 Class A titles, but the only other times that one of those schools wasn't also the runner-up were in 2003 and 2004 (Williamstown) and 1997 (now-closed Vinson).

Maybe that's one of the things I might find if I ever get the chance to do that archival research - the now-extinct public-school champion.

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.