History was made when the Northern 10 Athletic Conference released its boys’ all-league teams last week.
For the first time in the 10-year existence of the conference, the leading scorer in the league was not named to the first team.
Yes, you read that correctly. Bucyrus’ Malachi Bayless was inexplicably left off the top seven players in the league.
The voting is done by the league coaches who are not permitted to vote for their own players.
Bayless’ credentials speak for themselves. He not only led the league with a 19.3 ppg. average, he was second in 3-point shooting percentage at 43.5, a whisker behind Mohawk’s Hunter Haynes’ 43.8.
Further, Bayless was fourth in overall field goal percentage at 57.3. The three players ahead of him were all post players and all took at least 100 fewer shots. These are hardly statistics of a volume shooter.
Defensively, Bayless tied for fifth in the league with 2.1 steals per game, demonstrating that he did not live just for the offensive end of the floor.
He had a historic career at Bucyrus, ending with 1310 points, shattering the glass ceiling that had prevented any previous Redmen from reaching 1000. His 464 points this year are second all time for a season.
And for all his efforts and hard work, he is rewarded with a second-team selection. The numbers should have had him much closer to player of the year than second team.
What’s truly baffling is that the voting was done by the very coaches who game-planned around him, using face guards, double-teams, and other various defensive maneuvers designed to stop him and had done so twice a year for most of the past three seasons.
All gave lip service to the difficulty of defending Bayless. Coaches have told me things like ‘You can’t let him get going. His teammates feed off him.’ Or ‘Most nights, Malachi is the best player on the floor.’ Yet, their collective votes told a different story.
Outsiders must wonder then, what is the problem? Conspiracy theorists might assume collusion. Whether that is true, only the voters know.
It has been suggested that N10 coaches vote for players on winning teams over those with sub-.500 records. Bucyrus finished 7-17, which would fit that narrative. But is it substantiated?
In 2015, Carey’s Abel LaRoche was eighth in the league in scoring and made first team. The Blue Devils were 10-13.
In 2019, Josh Crall of Wynford — a sophomore at the time — was first team N10 and deservedly so. He averaged 26.5 ppg and scored 609 points. But the team was 5-18. Three years later, the Royals’ Jaren Filliater made first team with a 15.5 average, fifth in the N10. Wynford finished 5-17.
This is not to disparage the efforts of those former players. It is meant to show that ‘coaches vote for wins’ fallback is shallow.
The N10 girls’ coaches apparently don’t follow any such unwritten creed. The top five scorers in the league were all on first team N10. Among them was Brook Dennison from 9-15 Bucyrus.
In the nearby Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference, the boys’ first team included the top five scorers. One was from 10-13 Clear Fork, and one each were from Galion and Pleasant, both 6-8 in the MOAC.
All-league honors are individual awards, not teams. Tainting them with the team wins analysis is an insult to the player. In this case, it is also a slap to first year Bucyrus coach Brian Hargis. Can’t a team with so-called substandard wins have a talented player?
While I have successfully worked with the N10 coaches, established relationships, admired their coaching acumen and the success they have enjoyed over the years, they got this one very wrong.
All of them would be incensed and feel insulted if this oversight happened to one of their players in a comparable situation. Their decision, regardless of their reasoning, waters down their selections.
And lest you write me off as a Bucyrus apologist, multiple media members and coaches from around the area were no less shocked by his omission.
Malachi Bayless is a great kid as well as a great player. His legacy has been established at Bucyrus High School, and he will go on to other successes in life. And I know I speak for Coach Hargis that he hopes Bayless will come back to the program soon in some capacity.
To N10 coaches: In the future, get past the myopia of wins and vote for what you see. Do better. The kids deserve it.