We have been receiving a lot of email questions about our award selection process. You can read the basic overview of it here: http://maxfh.longstreth.com/2018-high-school-all-region-teams/
We will not share the exact feedback and information we received and based our decisions on and who we received it from. If we did that, no one would ever provide us with feedback, which we heavily rely on. We work incredibly hard to make our awards good, fair, and inclusive and put an incredible amount of time into collecting the information we need to confidently make our decisions.
For All-Americans selections specifically- these are the hardest awards to decide. With 60 coveted spots and so many talented players across the country (and 22 states), it is almost impossible to narrow down the list. We try very hard to make these awards about this specific 2018 High School season. With all the coverage we do on MAX Field Hockey, we have a lot of knowledge of the top players from things like our Player Rankings, USA Field Hockey selections, junior national team rosters (which were just released), college commitments, and more. While we may use that information to make comparisons of players with similar accomplishments and resumes, etc. we do not just go by that information- or why would we even bother following the High School season? These are High School season awards.
Additionally, another benefit and angle we have with these awards is our High School rankings and knowing how teams match-up on the field and which players are making the most impact in the big games, which is really what an All-American should be. So that is one more thing we consider when making our decisions.
In the end, we are always going to miss talented and deserving players, even junior national team members or the best player from an area. There are a lot of them out there! These are MAX Field Hockey’s awards, based on our process, which we work really hard to make the best it can possibly be given our resources and the wide range of challenges one meets in taking on such a task. We are proud to release the lists we do and honor such talented players and we hope you enjoy our continued High School coverage!
View the 2018 National All-American Teams