All-Met High School Sports Show
With Jon DeNunzio
Washington Post High School Sports Editor
Tuesday, April 2, 2002; 6 p.m. EST

The Washington Post publishes the Winter All-Met section of the 2002 school year in Wednesday's paper. The section honors the top high school athletes in basketball, indoor track and field, swimming and diving, wrestling and volleyball.

Washington Post High School Sports Editor Jon DeNunzio was online to give a preview of The Post's Winter All-Met section and take questions and comments on high school sports.

DeNunzio and his staff will discuss how the selection process works, what kind of athletes generally make All-Met and how the athletes are honored.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Jon DeNunzio: Greetings. The Post's Winter All-Met section comes out tomorrow, but we're going to preview the section and talk about the picks tonight. Throughout this chat, I'll release the first-team selections in basketball, indoor track, wrestling, swimming, volleyball and ice hockey and answer your questions along the way. Feel free to ask All-Met questions or any other question about The Post's high school coverage ... let's go!

Strasburg, Va.: How far west in Virginia does your coverage area merge?

Jon DeNunzio: East to west in Virginia, the high school sports staff covers Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Fauquier, Clarke and Frederick counties. We also dip south-southwest into Culpeper, Stafford, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania counties. I think that's it.

Jon DeNunzio: Just to get things rolling, here's the All-Met basketball teams:

Girls’ Basketball
Teyoka Hodge (Dunbar)
Alena Koshansky (Chantilly)
Jessica Holsey (Sidwell Friends)
Lauren Troupe (Mount Vernon)
Candice Howard (Dunbar)
Tierra Jackson (Douglass)
Alis Freeman (Churchill)
Cotelia Bond-Young (Elizabeth Seton).
Dawn Chriss (St. John’s)
Charmaine Carr (Gwynn Park)
Coach of the Year: Pat Fisher (Churchill)
Player of the year: Cotelia Bond-Young

Boys’ basketball
Todd Galloway (Notre Dame)
Calvin Cage (Bladensburg)
Tre Kelley (Dunbar)
Jermaine Thomas (Thomas Johnson)
Louis Hinnant (Gwynn Park)
Travis Garrison (DeMatha)
Kevin Steenberge (River Hill)
Chris McCray (Fairmont Heights)
Ahmad Smith (O’Connell)
Wade Dunston (Bullis)
Coach of the year: Glen Farrello (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Player of the year: Jermaine Thomas

Washington D.C.: How was the Player of the Year for Girl's Basketball choosen? Was it just basketball or was it basketball and academics?

Jon DeNunzio: We choose all players of the year based on on-court performance, impact on the player's team and the various intangibles that make a player someone all coaches would love to have on the team. They're hard choices--simply making first team means a player does pretty well in all of the above categories.

Strasburg, Va.: I notice you sometimes wonder over into Winchester City (Handley) and Frederick County (Sherando). Are there any plans to move further toward Strasburg and Warren County?

Jon DeNunzio: Right now, there are no plans to expand our coverage area. But there are certainly good stories in the areas you mention--and we have done stories from those areas. The most notable one I recall was on Strasburg High's football program--a real small-school gem.

Lexington Park, Md.: Jon, Is there a general criteria for basketball All-Met? Is it points per game, rebounds, overall record that you consider when making the selection?
Also -- are you guys going to list rebounds in StatCentral next season? (Stat Central is a great feature by the way)

Jon DeNunzio: I tell our staff that we're looking for athletes with the best blend of talent and on-court/on-field/on-mat performance. Helping your team win is part of the equation (but we acknowledge that sometimes a great player has no help), too. We pay a lot of attention to what coaches tell us, as well.

Listing rebounds is probably not on the horizon for Stat Central. Our experience tells us that not many schools are able to report rebound totals when they call in box scores after games (and that's where the stats you see on Stat Central come from). Thanks for the kind words about the feature.

Jon DeNunzio: Okay, here's the swimming team:

Girls’ swimming
LeeAnn Chang (Whitman)
Amanda Blong (Sidwell Friends)
Mary Yarrison (Lee).
Katie Doggett (Jefferson)
GiGi deToll (Culpeper)
Kassy Kugler (Sherwood)
Allison Cameron (Madison).
Rachael Burke (Good Counsel)
Meghan Thiel (Yorktown)
Emily Verdin (Jefferson)
Coach Melissa Stephan (Jefferson)
Swimmer of the Year: Rachael Burke

Boys’ Swimming
Kenny Jenkins (Walter Johnson)
Chris Meleski (South Lakes)
Andrew Barber (Marshall).
Mike Ott (Oakton)
Ryan McCabe (Gonzaga)
Joe Pascale (Paul VI Catholic)
Dan Velez (Good Counsel)
Chris Gibson (Georgetown Prep)
Rick Eddy (Westfield)
Alan Fishman (Stuart)
Coach Kirby Weldon (Georgetown Prep)
Swimmer of Year: Chris Gibson

Arlington, Va.: Without risking your job, how important do you think the Post hierarchy feels high school sports is to the paper? How many reporters cover high school sports exclusively? How many on a story by story basis?

Jon DeNunzio: I think it's safe for me to answer this one ... without seeming to kiss up, it's safe to say my bosses have really shown a commitment to high school sports in the past three to five years. We started publishing Extras in December of 1996, and their hallmark has been good coverage of local sports and local news (not necessarily in that order). Since January of 1999, we have published a page or more of high school sports almost every day (when in season). It's a lot more than we used to do, and more than you will see at most papers this size.

We have eight staff reporters whose primary beat is high school sports at The Post. We also have a large, dedicated staff or part-timers and free-lancers. And we have seven editors whopse primary responsibility is high school sports. I'm biased, but I think high school sports fans get a good deal when they pick up The Post.

Washington, D.C.: How did you decide that Bond-Young should be player of the year

Jon DeNunzio: Here's some of the things you can say about Cotelia:

-- She averaged 20.9 ppg, 6 apg, 5 spg and 4.5 rpg for one of the area's top teams.

-- She's in the top 10 in the area in points per game, free-throw percentages, three-pointers per game.

-- She was consistently named by area coaches as one of the best--if not the best--players in the area.

-- She's headed to play in the ACC, at Wake Forest.

Jon DeNunzio: Track time ...

Girls’ Indoor Track and Field
Lauren Graff (Urbana)
Dacia Barr (Centreville)
India Ransom (Largo)
Keira Carlstrom (Oakton)
Erica Johnson (H.D. Woodson)
Fatima Shuler (Wakefield)
Tiandra Ponteen (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Lakisha Brooks (Largo).
Tiffany Nesfield (C.H. Flowers)
Tiffany Evans (Gar-Field)
Alexandra VanHeuven (Lake Braddock)
Bonnie Meekins (Oakton)
Coach Scott Mathias (Poolesville).
Athlete of the Year: Tiandra Ponteen

Boys’ Indoor Track and Field
Shane Stroup (River Hill)
Tim Riley (Suitland)
Paul Young (Oxon Hill)
Richard Smith (South Lakes)
David Sullivan (Centreville)
Steve Huntzinger (Robinson)
Phil Gaeta (Oakton)
Bryan Steele (Gaithersburg)
Craig Gallimore (Lake Braddock)
Marco Aguilar (Wilson)
Josh Allen (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Bobby Lockhart (Handley)
Coach Nathaniel Laney (Oxon Hill)
Athlete of the Year: Richard Smith

Somewhere, USA: Good to see Yorktown's name in there. Any other All-Mets from Yorktown?

Jon DeNunzio: I think Meghan Thiel (swimming) is the only Yorktown athlete to make first-team All-Met this winter. (Shameless plug alert) Take a look at the section tomorrow to see if any made second team or honorable mention ...

Alexandria, Va.: What are some of the "intangibles" that help an athlete make the cut?

Jon DeNunzio: Good question. We talk to coaches about things like leadership and sportsmanship, attitude, a player's ability to make teammates better, etc.

Strasburg, Va.: How many players total do you put on the girls and boys teams -- first team through honorable mention?

Jon DeNunzio: I assume this is a basketball question ... we have 10 first teamers, five each on second, third and fourth teams, and about 50 honorable mention selections. Same number for girls basketball.

Silver Spring, Md.: How about Ice Hockey?

Jon DeNunzio: Yeah, how about it?

Schuyler Winstead (Holton-Arms)
Mike Gardner (Sherwood)
Greg Costa (DeMatha)
Kyle Laughlin (Severn)
Matt Weber (Churchill)
T.J. Masengale (Bowie)
Richie Early (DeMatha)
Craig Vardy (Stone Bridge)
Coach Tony MacAulay (DeMatha)
Player of the Year: Greg Costa

Arlington, Va.: There seem to be a lot of private school names up there. What is the ration between private and public and does it differ widely between sports?

Jon DeNunzio: Hmmm ... I honestly have not counted the private-public ratio. We're trying to pick the athletes who have had the best year and have shown the most talent, so things like whether a school is private or public, or in Maryland/DC/Virginia, really don't come into play. Other than an All-Met team like spring soccer (where only Virginia public schools are playing), I think the private-public ratio is unpredictable. I would have thought that ice hockey, for instance, is a private shcool-dominated sport, but we have a pretty even split there.

Jon DeNunzio: Here's the wrestling team:

Douglas Ramsey (Atholton)
Brandon Shapiro (Churchill)
Frankie Baughan (Quince Orchard)
Dave Nakasone (Centennial)
Mike Rowe (DeMatha)
Kyle Graham (Colonial Forge)
Danny April (Churchill)
Matt Eveleth (Chesapeake)
Charles D. Jenkins (Fauquier)
Doug Kittell (Colonial Forge)
Jason Kiessling (McDonough)
Cam Watkins (DeMatha)
Ryan Green (River Hill)
Chris Booker (Paint Branch)
Rudy Rueda III (DeMatha)
Bruce Ross (Colonial Forge)
Robby Gosnell (Fauquier)
Russell Tebeleff (Hammond)
Matt Butler (Einstein)
Bode Ogunwole (Georgetown Prep)
Conrad Bolston (St. John’s)
Eric Zakrzewski (Herndon)
Pat Burns (Wilde Lake)
Gabe Resto (Hayfield)
Chris Miosi (St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes)
Coach Thad Kiesnowski (Brentsville).
Wrestler of the Year: Jason Kiessling

Silver Spring, Md.: Thanks for the hockey team. What about some of the other outstanding players in Maryland like Lamade from Landon (first team last year) and DeMatha's Aguiar, LaCour and Plant?

Jon DeNunzio: You're welcome. I am familiar with most of those names, and know they are very good players. This may be a good time to say with the number of schools The Post covers, some very good players do not make first-team All-Met. In basketball, for instance, around 250 Washington area schools play. If we only considered the leading scorer on each team, there would be 240 who didn't make first team and about 150 who got no recognition at all. So, without getting specific, I can say that the subjective choices we make are pretty tough, and making even the honorable mention team is an honor, in our opinion.

Jon DeNunzio: Last team to release ... volleyball:

Lacey White (Westfield)
Brittany Mister (Calvert)
Stefanie Williams (Maret)
Lauren Klau (Severna Park)
Lindsey Feller (Centennial)
Tara Withers (Quince Orchard)
Erin Brugger (Centreville)
Kristen Carlson (Loudoun Valley)
Coach Romonzo Beans (Broadneck)
Player of the Year: Kristen Carlson

Southeast: Is it true that the all-league teams are selected by throwing darts at box scores?

Jon DeNunzio: Someone thinks they're pretty funny. Well, this is a good time to point out that we do publish first-team all-league selections for basketball in tomorrow's section as well. The selections are submitted to us by the coaches in the respective leagues. In the rare case that a league does not select an all-league team, we select one for them.

Jon DeNunzio: Ok, gang, it's time to go. Thanks so much for the great questions, and look for the section in tomorrow's paper. I'm always willing to answer further questions ... e-mail me at denunzioj@washpost.com ... Maybe we'll see you all in this space again when the spring All-Mets come out!

washingtonpost.com:

That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.

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