All-Stars 2007: Adams, O’Keefe win POY
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- April
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The Journal News Winter All-Star section was published today and along with it our selections for the Westchester/Putnam all-star teams and the Rockland all-county teams for the 2006-07 girls basketball season.
Both Jake (in Rockland) and myself (in Westchester/Putnam) produced the teams by polling coaches in our respective areas. Many of you had debated how I should decide the teams, so here is how I did it:
I polled 10 coaches from a variety of different leagues and classes. (The panel is included with the list of players who were honored.) I asked each coach for a first and second team, a player of the year and a coach of the year. I then tallied the votes for each player (giving more weight to a first-place vote than a second-place vote) and the top five vote-getters were first team and the next five were second team.
The opinions varied, but in the end the result pretty much fell in line with what I thought. Kim Adams of White Plains (right) was selected the Player of the Year. She was joined on the first team by teammates Liz Flooks; Lakeland’s Amy Voelkel; Scarsdale’s Jackie Alemany; and Haldane’s Brittany Shields. If you’ve read this blog from the very beginning, “the team may seem awfully familiar.”:http://sixthman.lohudblogs.com/2006/12/01/why-are-these-girls-smiling/ Steve Fallo of Lakeland was the coach of the year.
If you’d like to view the entire first team, second team and honorable mention list for Westchester/Putnam, “you can check it out on our website here.”:http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070415/SPORTS02/704150311
In Rockland, Jake and the coaches throughout the county tabbed Pearl River’s Kaitlyn O’Keefe (right) as the player of the year. She was joined on the first team by: teammate Kerri Confrey; North Rockland’s Brianna Peterson; Clarkstown North’s Theresa Dowling; and Albertus Magnus’ Jen Canale. Pearl River’s Lorraine Moylan was the coach of the year.
If you’d like to view the entire first team, second team and honorable mention list for Rockland, “you can check it out on our website as well.”:http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070415/SPORTS02/704150309/1110
When it comes to all-star teams, I probably don’t need to encourage anyone to share their thoughts. That said, I hope you do let us know how you feel about how the teams turned out.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 2:01 pm by Josh Thomson. 
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Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of 2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has since covered various high school and pro sports. Away from sportswriting, Josh lives in Westchester and spends his free time either with his fiancee, Sarah, or expertly managing his various championship-winning fantasy sports teams. He's visited 21 major-league baseball stadiums and insists that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the best by far. Josh graduated from Carmel High School in 1998, then went to Boston University, where, in 2002, he received a degree in communications with a minor in history.
josh, i think sarah benischek deserved to make the first team. i won’t say whom she should have replaced, but she deserved to be there.
IT IS ALWAYS TOUGH TO PICK A FIRST OR SECOND TEAM. WESTCHESTER,ROCKLAND AND PUTNAM SCHOOLS SHOULD CONSIDER TRIPLE HEADER GAMES NEXT SEASON . FANS AND RECRUITERS WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT MANY TEAMS AT ONE VENUE. LOCAL CABLE COLUD BE INVOLVED AS WELL. LOCAL COLLEGES TEACH COMMUNICATIONS AND BROADCASTING AS DO SOME HIGH SCHOOLS. ACT NOW! THIS WEB SITE IS THE BEST SPORTS WEB SITE IN THE STATE.
put on benischek, drop alemany.
5 of 7 out of the super 7 made first team. nothing more you
can do. O’keefe, Peterson & Benischek were also worthy of
first team but only 5 can be on the court at once. The
choices were correct.
This is combining all of section 1. not separating the
counties.
Magician you should change your name to Moron. Jackie Alemany doesn’t play with as much talent as Benischek and don’t even think about comparing schedules. Lakeland played nobody all year in Section 1. Not only should Alemany be on the first team she should have been POY in my humble opinion…
It’s good to be from White Plains! Early line on next year’s Player of the Year: Paige Sprewell!
Big Daddy Every man is entitled to his opinion. However,I recall a Friday night in January when Lakeland buried Scarsdale 63-47 at which time each Benischek and Voelkel individually outscored Alemany (19 and 20 points each,respectively). In addition Benischek went on to become the leading 3 point shooter in all of Section One, as well as the leading scorer overall on State Champion Lakeland for the entire season. These are not opinions. These are facts.
That having been said I congratulate all of these talented girls on a wonderful season and wish them all the best in their college careers.
One of the pre season favorites for player of the year next year will be Angelie Aguire. I agree with Josh when he said in an open tryout off all section one players she would be selected in the top five.
josh, speaking of next year…when are you releasing your picks for the top ten teams?
WPfan…
Who would be the other 4 players, other than Angelie Aguire?
Big Daddy… Why do you think Alemany deserves POY over Adams?
Mike…Alemany doesn’t have nearly the same amount of talent surrounding her as Adams, Voelkel, Benischek, Flooks etc. Plus she plays in the toughest league in all of Section I if not NY State. Straight Shooter made my point for me when he said “Voelkel and Benischek” Alemany didn’t have another player around her like that.
Being the leading three point shooter means nothing because it doesn’t take into account shooting percentage and it keeps stats for the whole playoffs. If a player goes 2/15 from three point land it doesn’t mean they are great shooter. I’m not saying that was the case with Benischek but there is no way to quantify it. Plus Benischek played more games than any other kid so her chance of leading goes up dramatically…
You can’t base a player’s talent on her supporting cast. Adams deserved player of the year, but Benischek had a much better year than Alemany. This was proven in the Lakeland – Scarsdale matchup that was dominated by Lakeland, especially when Voelkel and Benischek had to sit in the 2nd with foul trouble. Alemany had 2 or 3 fouls at the same time and was not a factor during that time period. Benischek had more of the intangibles not found in the scoresheet than Alemany making her more deserving of the first team nod.
And if I recall, she kept O’keefe to under 15 points in the sectional final and only 3 to 4 FG’s.
That’s huge, clutch defense.
And for the record…being able to contribute 62 successful 3 point baskets to your team during one season is not nothing. It was a tremendous school-record breaking accomplishment by a very talented player and I don’t care how many attempts it took or didn’t take to do it. FYI… 5 of them came during that Scarsdale game. I agree that Benischek should have been first team.
Oh and while we’re at it please let this be the last time I have to hear some whiner say that Lakeland played no one last year. They played everyone they needed to play to become NY State Class A Champs. Period. If you’re such a big guy Big Daddy why not congratulate them instead of belittling them and their accomplishments .
Big Daddy:
I agree with you that this year Alemany didn’t have as much talent on her team as Benischek and Voelkel.. I’ve observed Alemany play last summer in the off-season on her AAU team. When there are four other players who can equally score at any given time, the defense can’t collapse on one player (Alemany) Having more scoring options opens the floor up for everyone. Alemany is forced to carry that team.
Magician:
I disagree with you.. I think you can base a player’s talent on her supporting cast… A good example of this is: Haldane’s Brittany Shields…. Most teams doubled and tripled teamed her trying to shut her down, yet she was still able to put up big numbers. What would Adams be without Flooks? What would Voelkel be without Benischek? Another example is when Adams was out with injury against Kingston. Flooks had the weight of the team on her shoulders. If Adams were in the game, it would have forced Kingston to focus on both Flooks & Adams possibly with a different outcome for White Plains. Because of the fact that Lakeland & White Plains had multiple offensive weapons Benischek, Voelkel, Adams and Flooks don’t get doubled & tripled teamed like Alemany & Shields.
Straight Shooter: Why not replace Voelkel with Benischek ?
What about Kemp from Putnam Valley? Kemp lead in several categories: Kemp was number two (2) in Steals & Assists & number three (3) in three pointers, yet she didn’t make first or second team!
As for Player of the Year.. Congrats to Adams.. I agree with someone who wrote in a few weeks back about getting some Criteria. I do think that the POY Award will hold more weight when they decided on some criteria to even be nominated..
As of now, it’s not based on STATS, it all comes down to Coaches opinions. The POY is an Award for an individual player, so it should be based on individual achievements for that season.
Josh, Never easy to pick the All County – All Section and All State teams as well as the players of the year, first team etc. Those doing the selecting do their best. All those putting down a player to put up someone else miss the point. All these players did their best to get to the point of being honored and are recognized as such whether or not they made first, second or whatever team. If you know anything about these players, they all know what they accomplished to help their team be succesful and will always have that as part of their lives. Why make comments that will hurt some great player’s feelings because you think someone deserved more credit? Those of you who do that have very small minds. Be proud of all thse players, I know they are proud of what they have done.
Josh, Top seniors form 17 U AAU team: Also, by the way. If you or anyone wants to see how many of the top seniors get ready to play in college they have just gotten together to form a senior 17 u Future Stars AAU team. They will be practicing and playing in a number of local tournaments, starting with one May 5 and 6 at Pace, to help get ready for college. The team roster is made up of: Karlyn Adler, Blindbrook, Jackie Alemany. Scarsdale, Casey Cappelli, New Rochelle, Liz Flooks, White Plains, Jaki Goldner, Somers, Carey Hickey, Dobbs Ferry, Allie Long, Hastings, Alison Menna, Scarsdale, Chelsea Pennucci, Rye Neck, Nora Skrelji, Hastings, Amy Voekel, Lakeland, and Katarina Whalen, John Jay-Cross River. If you want to see a very talented group watch them play in the next couple of months.
You can’t drop Voelkel, she’s the only one around here to be first team all-state.
JOsh where r u!!! u havent commented on this blog!! and when r the next season predictions comming out??