The men’s and women’s basketball all- GLIAC honors were decided last weekend, and as usual, stats played a major role in these decisions.

The Northern athletes who were given these accolades illustrate both the good and the bad of what can come from this process.

The good news first.

Point guard Raymont McElroy was awarded the freshman of the year award, and junior guard Chris Warner was named to the Conference-All-Defensive Team. While both McElroy and Warner had imp r e s s i v e stats on both ends of the court, it is not the record-book reasons that make these two worthy of their respective spots.

McElroy and Warner played with th passion and attitude that defines a good athlete.

McElroy was second in team scor’99ing with 13 points per game and third in rebounding. He also was second in the league in minutes and he started every game but one. Both players and coaches associated with the freshman say he plays with the maturity of an upperclassman. For a freshman stroll onto a team, control the shot-clock and know how to run an offense the way McElroy did is definitely more of reason for him to receive this award than the simple statistics.

Warner is another great story for the Wildcats. He was redshirted last season because of a knee injury. And while this season may not have been what he hoped for on the offensive end, he made up for on the defensive end.

Warner, standing just over six feet tall, ended up snagging the most rebounds on the team, with 143. He was also the ‘Cats top defender with 43 steals. Warner at times was forced to play both the forward and guard position in some games but he was never out matched in speed or size on defense, and because of his determination on defense he – like McElroy – deserves these honors.

Now for the bad news.

Senior guard Kelsey Deacon – who helped lead the Wildcats to their first GLIAC playoff berth since 2005 – was selected as member to the second team all-GLIAC. While this is a respectable award, Deacon is the type of player that deserves first-team honors. She was third in the league in scoring and third in min’99utes played. Deacon also made two game-winning shots in order to give the Wildcats a playoff seed.

Deacon set the example and turned the page toward the future for a young basket’99ball program that had been under .500 for the past four years. By doing this, she de’99served to be on the first team.

Mi c h i g a n Tech, had an amazing sea’99son but the Huskies didn’t even win the GLIAC tour’99nament and three of their players made the first team.

I think that these players were selected because of their overall records and stats, which are not the most important attributes for a good athlete.

I know many coaches will agree that many good players, even some of the best, do things that aren’t recorded in the stat sheets. A lot of great and valuable team players in all levels, even professional, do things that change a team for the better and go unrecognized.

As supporters of the sporting world we shouldn’t let player’s league statistics determine if they are worthy of recogni’99tion. We need to remove the MVP, All- Star blindfolds and support athletes that do things that we as people think are admi’99rable. We should not to judge athletes on their overall records or their stats, but on their determination and passion they play the game with.

All three athletes from Northern – and I am sure there are many more throughout the league than just the first team – play the game in this way, and that is why they are deserving of these honors.