Colorado Mammoth Message Board

Mr. Govett,
How are the reserve members of the All-Star teams chosen? I always thought the reserves were decided like the starters were, by a vote. But after reading an article, by Theresa Smith in the Denver Post, I am now under the impression that they are actually chosen by the All-Star Team Head Coach.



http://www.denverpost.com/lacrosse/ci_5318463

From http://www.nll.com/article.php?id=2763:

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Hey ref, you suck! *clap clap clap clap clap*

Well that's somewhat disappointing to me. It's great seeing talented guys like Gallant and Sims in the game for the first time, but it somehow seems different when it's their coach putting them in there versus their fans and peers.

Yea...that's the same way I felt. While I wasn't surprised to see Josh in the game (he has won like 5 Transition Player of the Week awards), seeing John in there was a complete shock. I do think that John is a very underappreciated player and deserves to play in the game, but I think that being selected to play in the game by your coach rather than the entire league doesn't do it justice.

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Hey ref, you suck! *clap clap clap clap clap*

I agree. I'm a huge Gallant fan and was both very surprised and excited to see him getting some recognition because he's definitely one of those hard working players that goes in, does his job and does it well but is definitely overshadowed by some of his peers. It's still nice to see him being recognized, but it's just not the same.

The 6 starters for the All Star game are selected as a vote of the fans, the media and the GMs. Each vote counts for 1/3 of the total.

The Head Coach of each respective All Star team selects the reserve teams based on the voting from all three parties. There are 3 picks reserved for the Commissioner and his office.

The process was put together the way it was because we have to create what at least looks like a competetive game. Voting from fans and media is not always indicitive of what a team needs to be able to play a game. For example, it is difficult to play a game with 14 offensive players and 2 goalies, and only two voted defensive starters.

Voting lists are provided to the coaches when they select the reserves for the team and submit the list. By no means should this reflect negatively on the selections.

Gee Nash missed being named as a starter by .04% on the votes, Josh Sims was the highest transistion player voted for, next to Brodie Merril. John Gallant was third on the list for defensive players after the voted starters. Gavin Prout was also very high on the voting list after the starters, so no one from the Mammoth was added without merit from the eligible voters.

The big challenge that faces the selection process for anyone in this situation is a potential surplus of players from one team that may garner excessive votes from their fans. Now obviously I like to see our fans vote for our players, but we may be given an "unfair" advantage with the number of players that we could conceivably see from the Mammoth on the All Star team because of the great support of our fans. On the other hand, there is a thought out there that the Mammoth should have more players because we have more fans supporting the team and the team deserves it.

The bottom line is that the game has to have representation from all the teams, that is only fair. It is our goal to create a game that represents the entire league and the number of players corresponds to the respective location of those teams in the standings.

We are thrilled with the guys we have in the game and each and every one of them in their roles on our team are well deserving for the All Star game.

SG

Thank you Mr. Govett for such a thorough reply. That makes me feel a lot better about the process. I know as a fan I have a biased view of our players, but I also don't want us overrepresented simply because our coach is our division's All-Star coach.