Please check just one winner in each classification.  Note that if you do not put a name on the entry form, it will be discarded.  If you choose not to pick a team in all six classifications, your entry will still be counted but any classification without a team will be counted as a miss. 

       Five of the six classifications were won by teams that were favored to win.  The one team that won that wasn’t favored was the Decatur Girls and they were a very close second to favored Briarwood Christian Girls in 5A girls.   That should have made picking six winners a relatively easy task. 

The 2008 winning teams were:
6A Boys: Oak Mountain Boys
5A Boys: John Carroll Catholic Boys
4A Boys: Indian Springs Boys
6A Girls: Mountain Brook Girls
5A Girls: Decatur Girls
4A Girls: Guntersville Girls

This year only two entries were perfect.  They were submitted by Jim Reeves and Brad Scott.

    This is the sixth contest I've held and since the first contest in 2003, only eight people have had perfect entries.  This year six people submitted entries that got five of the six winning teams correctly.  Those were submitted by Ethan Belcher, Jimmy Ray Smith, Ryan Kirschbaum, John B Carter, Ken Gamble (me), and Tom Konantz.

     A large number of people got four out of six correct.  They were: Adam Trodd, Andy Kuklinski, Mike DePriest, Kate, Nicholas Trodd, Taylor Hogan, Matthew, Hunter Gray, Amar Amin, Stephen Vincent, Joel Reid, Colby Marks, Foster Perry, K. Keiser, Mason Lavallet, Craig Jones, John Eppenger, Randy Esser, John Davis, William Glass, Craig Maples, Tim McMichens, Glenn Knott, Gil Dobbs, Kelsey Hayes, Jimmy Goldberg, K. T. Wood, Ovik Banerjee, Joel Scroggins, Eddie Strachan and Derek Dearman.

       Four of the six classifications were won by teams that were favored to win.  That would seem to make picking the final two winners for a perfect “Pick Six” easy.  But it wasn’t.   

      The two upset winners were the Briarwood boys, who were listed on only 12% of the 5A ballots, and Randolph’s boys who garnered only 19% of the votes in 4A.

The 2007 winning teams were:
6A Boys: Oak Mountain Boys
5A Boys: Briarwood Boys
4A Boys: Randolph Boys
6A Girls: Vestavia Girls
5A Girls: Briarwood Girls
4A Girls: Altamont Girls

There were approximately 350 ballots and only one perfect ballot was submitted.  The only person to get all six picks correct was Cody Martin.   

These high school soccer experts picked five out of six winners:

Will Anderson, Steve Ankenbrandt, Jonathan Barnes, Shane Dressback, Patrick Gadilhe, Karon Harmon, Ken Hudson, Jill Kimbrough, Harding Leach, Miss Soccer Fan, Juanita Neville, Hank O’Steen and Davey Phillips.

These 34 people picked four out of six winners:

John Anselmo, Dennis Arnold, Jennings Box, Andrew Brower, Sam Collins, Danny Cordes, Samantha Corker, Freddie Delchamps, Lucia Delchamps, John Eppenger, Carolyn Esser, Randy Esser, Michael Goodman, Jay Hare, Alex Hinson, Jon Hoffman, Brian Jokich, Ben Kuyk, Tom Konantz, Garrett Neill, Alex Piola, Kris Rose, T. Rucks, Todd Schaefer, Eric Schauwecker, Brad Scott, Tom Sinclair, Mark Slovensky, Jacob Steeley, Scott Sweeney, Ed Turner, Joe Webb, Alan Weldon and Ingrid (no last name).  

Thanks to everyone who played.  We’ll be back in Spring 2008 for a new contest.

Ken Gamble

Results of the Final Four Pick’Em Contest
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Three Perfect Entries!

If you read my article on Thursday about the odds on each team in the Final Four, then you know that five of the six favorites won state titles. The one team that won that wasn’t favored was Briarwood Christian and they were a very close second to favored Huntsville in 5A girls.

So it follows that several people probably had perfect entries. And out of approximately 400 entries, three did.

Congratulations to D. Cordes, John Fendley and Arnold Mooney, who showed how much they knew about high school soccer by picking every champion perfectly.

In 2005 Nick Davis (perfect ballot) and Michael Navarro (5 out of 6) both played for Holy Spirit and it was their choice of Holy Spirit to win the 4A-1A Boys Championship that separated their entries from others. More importantly both players were among the six players to shoot (after overtime) when the game went to Kicks-From-The-Mark.

This year one of the three perfect entries also had a relationship that helped him out. Arnold Mooney picked Briarwood to upset Huntsville. As the Briarwood team manager and long time parent/fan his loyalty to the team paid off.

Ten contestants were close and picked five of the six winners. Schuyler Redpath, Spencer Callahan, Ben Kuyk and Harding Leach only missed on games that went to “kicks from the mark” (Huntsville or Oak Mountain).

The others who picked five of the six winners were: Ingrid Ashcom, Kyle Irion, R. J. Russell, Sean Patrick, Carlos (cman1956) and Billy (altamontsoccer3).

Thanks to everyone who entered and congratulations to all twenty-four teams in the Final Four. It was another great year in Alabama high school soccer!

Ken

 

 Results of the 2004 Final Four “Pick-Em” Contest

      There were over three hundred entries in this year’s contest. Yet, no one predicted all six of the state champions. In fact, no one even picked five of the six teams to win it all. The best anyone could do was four champions. Where a contestant didn’t list their full name – I included a portion of their e-mail address so they would know it was them.

     Here’s a list of those people who were able to predict four of the six champions AND who selected the runners-up in the two classifications where they failed to picked a winner – In other words they picked four first place and two second place teams. These four were the best of the best: Franky Kinyua, David Johnston, John Davis, and Rick Owens.

     The next group of five contestants picked four winners and one second place team. They were: Heidi Sizemore, John (Ladylion106), Bill Walker (from Hartselle, not the referee), Steve Butterworth, and John (BBB).

     The last group was still heads above the remaining contestants. They were able to accurately pick half of the six state champion teams. In that group were the following: Steve Buchtal, G. S. Vincent, Luzy (ljtribble), Montg Matt, Ken Gamble, Lewis E. White, G. H. (amuru), Ryan Cowart, Sam Shouse, Trey Barnes, Andrew Brower, Harding Leach, Ryne Chandler, Schuyler Redpath, Alex Hinson, Nathan Krauss, Bryon Allsup, G. F. Garflog, and David Hall.

Thanks.

Ken Gamble

      Here are the results of the 2003 Playoff Picks contest on the NASL website where you were asked to pick the champions in each of the six classifications of the recent AHSAA playoffs. I did not check any of the entries that were marked after the first games began on Friday morning. If I did the permutations correctly the odds of randomly picking all six winners was 1 in 4,096 but obviously many of the entries knew their teams and the competitors well and did much better than that. No one picked all six winners correctly but several came close. Out of about 300 total entries, a list of the best pickers is shown below. Only 5 people were able to get 5 out of the 6 winners. Nineteen more got 4 out of 6 and eighteen were able to get 3 out of six. Everyone else picked two winners or less.

      These people picked 5 out of the six winners: George Stegall (missed 5A girls only), Casey Edwards (missed 5A girls only), Scott Taylor (missed 4A boys only), John Davis (missed 5A girls only), and Bill Roberts (missed 5A girls only). Scott Taylor was the only 5/6 picker who got the 5A girls picked correctly. 

     If there had been a tie breaker it would have gone to Casey Edwards and Scott Taylor who both picked the winning team as the runner-up in the only classification where they failed to picked the winner.

      These people picked 4 out of the six winners: Ryan Hudgins, ddmd, Bujo Tew, Peter Gamble, Robert Starr, heckler15, Ryan Strachan, Fred Davey, David Chaplin, D. Hildreth, E. M. Turner, Glenn Knott, Drew Philpot, Aravind, Chris THE MAN, randy (firekid), John Carter, Dawn Moynihan, and Dean Johnson.

     These people picked 3 out of the six winners: Lisa Jones, Daniel Boone, Chip Stevens, Todd Wood, Brian Jackson, Tim Shugart, Donald Clayton, Jeff McCutcheon, NthNO, JM (birds), Julee, Michael (monkman), Annice Scott, Ben Slaughter, Tom Lewis, Bill Walker, Matt Munger, and Michael Goodman.

     Some of these people didn’t leave a full name so I have listed a partial name. I’m apologize if I made a mistake and left some of the winners off but I checked them quickly. Also several people had good picks but did not put their name down so they got no credit.

      I hope everyone enjoyed it and I’ll try to have something similar next year.

Ken

Content Owner: 
Ken Gamble

Thanks to Alabama High School Soccer Coaches Association for allowing the web space to post this contest.
 

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