This school year, the longtime All-Area model will transition to the “All-Standard” postseason honors.

Each team sport that has traditionally been recognized with our All-Area awards will continue to be spotlighted in the All-Standard honors, with some modifications to the format.

So, why the change? In recent years, the sports desk remapped its coverage priorities across Weber, Box Elder and Davis counties to best maximize daily preps coverage that readers expect from their daily newspaper. Taking this change into consideration, the postseason awards, too, are receiving a change to best recognize the top athletes from the “Top of Utah.”

Raising the Standard

As indicated, the change in format includes a name change, as the new “All-Standard Teams” title lends the paper’s name to its postseason awards and better signifies a player’s accomplishment for being so honored.

Editorial changes, as well as a shift in the Standard-Examiner’s daily print deadline, have motivated evolutions in our daily preps coverage, including how we approach columns, human-interest features and enterprise projects. Our postseason awards are a major asset to our readers, and this name change is made with that public trust in mind.

Player of the Year

Keeping with tradition, the Standard-Examiner will continue honoring a “Player of the Year” for each recognized sport. This includes a profile story in the special print edition.

Team consolidation

Instead of awarding upwards of four tiers of players in each sport (i.e., First Team, Second Team, Third Team, honorable mentions), the new All-Standard teams will stand alone as one honor for the top players in that sport, plus honorable mentions.

The formula

The size of each All-Standard Team is sport-specific, accounting for participation differences.

Simply put, the number of players honored in a sport’s All-Standard Team will be the number of players who are on the court or field in that sport, plus one, then doubled.

For example, in soccer, an 11-player field lends itself to recognizing 24 players (including the Player of the Year).

This change makes the All-Standard honor both more exclusive, in that receiving the honor becomes a higher standard, while also being more inclusive by allowing for better breadth in honoring players from schools across all classifications, and from teams with varying levels of team success.

The process

As has been the case with All-Area, the All-Standard Teams will continue to originate with coach nominations. From there, nominees are considered through a performance evaluation and the All-Standard Team is drawn.

Questions?

Connect with Standard-Examiner sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net.