All-district voters snub WC netters

I’m no tennis expert. In fact, if it wasn’t for the help I’ve received from longtime WCHS coach David Dunlap over the years, I probably wouldn’t know a pro set from a TV set.

But I do know a little about pro wrestling, and one thing I learned from ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair is this: To be the man, you have to beat the man.

Well, the Pioneers’ Andee Vance didn’t quite beat the man, but he certainly came close, losing in the district tournament individual finals to league MVP Casey Edwards of Siegel.

So while Edwards may be ‘the man,’ Our local top seed is certainly right up there with him, right?

So can anybody tell me why he only received ‘honorable mention’ on this year’s all-district team?

Edwards, who led Siegel to the league title before claiming his own individual crown, deservedly took the No. 1 spot on the boys’ all-district first team. But there are four more first-teamers, and five second-teamers, named to the all-league squad before you find Vance, who is the first ‘ and only ‘ Warren County player on either the boys or girls teams.

Not only did Andee get dropped well below where he should have logically been on the all-district squad, not one other member of the Pioneers, who took the third seed into the tournament and battled their way into the finals, even received honorable mention.

One more point, just in case you’re out there thinking the tournament performance doesn’t play into selecting the all-district team. Before the individual tourney even began, eventual league MVP Edwards was the No. 1 seed.

Who was No. 2? That’s right, good old ‘honorable mention’ Andee Vance.

Again, I’m no tennis expert. But I understand seedings and rankings, and if you’re good enough to be No. 2 at the end of the year, you’re certainly good enough to be at least No. 2 on the all-district team.

So it looks like it’s time for the Pioneers’ Andee to call Channel 2’s Andy Cordan, because ‘That’s Messed Up.’

‘ From the random thoughts file, here’s a gem I overheard while leaving Oakland following the Pioneers’ loss to Siegel Friday. The quote comes from a young female fan who was entering the complex to watch Oakland and Lebanon play their first round game, and to me sums up the Paris Hilton-esque attitude so many young ladies unfortunately seem to be adopting. But social climate issues aside, it was still pretty funny.

‘I like basketball, but I think I’m going to quit,’ she said. And when asked why, she replied, ‘I want to play tennis; they wear the cutest little skirts ‘ ever.’

By the way, the Oakland-Lebanon game was suspended midway through, when rainstorms moved back into the area. I hope that young lady didn’t get caught out in the weather, because that could’ve resulted in the worst hair day ‘ ever.

‘ Indications from the Pioneer football team’s spring practice are that all is going well, with play installation complete and efforts this week geared toward multiple repetitions to allow players to perfect what they’ve learned.

It was certainly refreshing for this cynical old sports writer Monday, when I hit the sidelines of the practice field to see head basketball coach Ryan Smith helping out with receivers and defensive backs.

In this day and age of coaches competing to see which players will ‘specialize’ in their sport as opposed to someone else’s, it was very nice to see a coach from one of the school’s major sports stepping up to to help one of his colleagues.

Who knows? Maybe the trend will continue with fall coaches helping spring teams and vice versa, then the players will follow suit, and one day the phrase ‘three-sport letterwinner’ will return to our vocabularies.