The Game Plan By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



In sports, ties are not considered a good thing. The old saying, “a tie is like kissing your sister,” sums up how most people feel about holding a contest and not having a winner emerge.

In college football, they eliminated ties in the mid-90s. In the NFL, they play one extra period and if neither team scores in the fifth period, the game ends in a tie.

I take the NFL’s approach to some things, including naming All-Area teams in most sports.

I think when it comes to postseason awards, a tie is not a bad thing.

Look at our newly named 2007 All-North Jefferson football team, you’ll notice that both Gardendale’s Zac Davis and Fultondale’s J.D. Hood were named the Co-Lineman of the Year.

How did that happen? Well, they both blocked for playoff teams. They both were leaders of their offensive lines and from what their coaches tell me they dominated the player they lined up against week after week this season.

Then, when the forms with the coaches votes came back to our office, we added up the votes and the two seniors were tied for the award.

What to do? In this case, I thought nothing was the right thing to do. If I had broken the tie and picked one over the other, I don’t think any real purpose would have been served, so I simply ordered one more plaque than usual an let the tie stand.

After all, they both had great years and were both deserving of the honor, so what’s the harm in letting them share the award? None that I can see.

However, I did make one change to this year’s All-North Jefferson football team. I added a player that wasn’t overlooked, but that was left out of the voting due to an injury.

Last season, during his sophomore year, Gardendale quarterback Conner McCain was named to the team by a unanimous vote of area coaches.

This season, McCain suffered an ankle injury that required surgery and cost him half of his junior season.

If he hadn’t gotten hurt, I’m sure his yardage totals would have doubled every other quarterback in our area. At the halfway mark of the season, he was ahead of the numbers every other quarterback would post in our area for an entire season.

The only quarterback who surpassed McCain’s yardage total was Taberancle’s Daniel Whaley, but it took the Torches senior 11 games to do it, so it’s easy to see what a great year McCain was having before he was lost due to the injury.

Because of his injury, our area coaches didn’t vote for him like they did last season, but I’m sure they would have if he had missed five games. Therefore, I decided to add McCain to the team myself.

Sometimes ties aren’t a bad thing and injuries should be ignored—and both instances have to do with All-Area teams.