Women's Callahan

I thought it was a foregone conclusion who would be the Callahan this year, so I steered clear of detailing my personal picks on who was most deserving. To say the least, the final results were a bit surprising, and congratulations are certainly in order to Courtney Kiesow for winning the award.

That said, Kira Frew deserved the award, plain and simple. I completely agree with Neva's assessment in her summary of the finals. Kira is definitely the best player of the five finalists, and no player was more instrumental to her team's success this year. In writing this, I don't mean to denigrate Courtney for having won the award (or any of the other primary candidates). I was fortunate enough to have watched all of the top ten finalists play (and several other candidates), and I can't help but feel that Kira was robbed.

Especially for everyone outside the region, it's very difficult for other teams to properly assess the impact of a player's leadership skills on a team. That means that a player's impact on the field and their relative value on the team usually end up as the primary means by which they are evaluated. Because most players don't get a chance to see all of the primary candidates play, the voting is susceptible to becoming a popularity contest. It's an imperfect system, but that's how it is until the amount of coverage (video footage, write-ups, debates/analysis) increases.

It's after the fact, but if I could have voted on the Callahan, here's how my ballot would have looked:

1. Kira Frew - UBC
2. Katie Barry - UCSB
3 (tie). Angie 'Taz' Sanan - UCLA
3 (tie). Gina Phillips - Texas (not in the top ten but definitely deserved to be there)
5. Lucia Derks - Wake Forest

A few thoughts about each player... without Kira, UBC is still a good team with Tory Hislop and Candace Chan controlling the disc. That said, it was clear that whenever Kira was on the field, the team played with a lot more confidence and poise. She often looks like she's playing the game at a different speed from everyone else on the field. I've blabbed about Katie's importance to the Burning Skirts before. She doesn't stand out as much as Kira, but UCSB would not have been in position to win it all this season without her play and leadership. Taz has a great deal of talent around her, but UCLA's handling is substantially weaker when she's off the field.

Gina Phillips should have made the top ten and it's a shame that she didn't receive more accolades this season. Part of this might be because she's in the South region, but she looked absolutely dominant this weekend. Much like Taz with UCLA, Phillips made the offense significantly better. She's not as strong a thrower as Taz, but she's the better defender.

Lucia Derks has more relative value to her team than any of the other teams at Nationals. Derks is a phenomenal athlete; she is both a dynamic handler and an explosive defender. She has some holes in her game - specifically, her fundamentals as a thrower and her decision-making skills - that set her a step below the top four players. Without her, there's no way that Ruckus would have been nearly as competitive with teams like Michigan and Santa Barbara.

Sarah 'Surge' Griffith and Anne Mercier would just miss the top five. Surge is very fast and critical to Flywheel's mid game. They rely on her to get the disc upfield and get the disc flowing. Anne Mercier might very well be the best player in the women's college game. At least this year, I think her relative value is not as great as the five I listed above. Ottawa has other strong options (in particular, Alex Benedict and Danielle Fortin) who would keep them highly competitive.

Seeing as how I haven't listed Courtney Kiesow above, I feel the need to justify that. I watched Wisconsin in three games (Texas, UC Santa Barbara and Oregon) and I think that Courtney is a very good player. She's a strong receiver and cutter, and she has a good arsenal of throws. On the flip side, she isn't the best player on Wisconsin (that would be Georgia) and I think there are a number of other players who can provide what she tangibly brings to the field, in particular, Frances Tsukano, Laura Bitterman and Emilie McKain. [On a side note, I was very impressed with Emilie McKain. All of the excitement about her game is absolutely merited. She's definitely someone to watch for years to come.]

I know that what I've written is bound to piss off the folks in Madison. None of this is personal. Also, this is just based on the three games I've seen Bella Donna play, and I cannot adequately assess the impact her leadership has on the Wisconsin team itself.

I am mainly bringing up all of this because I feel very strongly about Kira having deserved the Callahan this year. I wonder if she lost some votes because of an anti-Canadian sentiment, and I feel a bit guilty for having joked about taking down the Canadians. If this is the case, it's a terrible shame. Whatever the case is, I'm sure that winning the title more than makes up for the absence of the Callahan.

Regarding the Callahan itself, one major flaw with the voting is that it is finalized before Nationals, the best venue for all of the voters to determine who deserves the award. Certainly, the great thing about voting before Nationals is that the award can be presented at the tourney. I do wonder if it would be possible to tally extra votes at Nationals, so that the attendees and any spectators can make their decision as best-informed as it possibly can be. I don't know that it would have made a difference in the voting for either the men or women, but it's something to consider. Certainly, the argument can be made that the Callahan should be based on performance over the course of the season, but realistically, it's difficult to fairly assess all of the candidates before May. Of the elite, national-scale tourneys, Vegas is too early and the Stanford fields are too spread apart to enable voters to form a good opinion. That makes Centex the best place to assess everyone, but of course, this doesn't incorporate the College Series, the tourneys which really define who is what.

Anyway, this is my two cents and congrats go out to all of the Callahan finalists. I'll be posting details on Day Two and other stories from Nationals in days to come.