It’s time we addressed a question that has been on the minds of coaches and athletes in Lawrence for some time now.

For years, the city athletes have watched as the Journal-World has revealed its all-area teams at the conclusion of each high school season. Each time, the athletes from Lawrence were left out in the cold.

I understand the reasoning behind why it has been done this way. As time has gone on, our coverage has expanded into cities such as Tonganoxie, Baldwin, Eudora and McLouth. In an effort to make those communities truly feel like an important part of our paper – which they are – we developed an all-area team to honor the outstanding athletes from all of those communities in the same place.

The problem is this: We’ve left no place for the Lawrence athletes. Doing a similar all-city squad would be weird. I’m not sure it would look all that impressive to see a list with eight kids from Free State intermingled with eight kids from LHS. Overkill is a word that comes to mind.

So, why not include the Lawrence athletes in the all-area selections? After all, Lawrence is in the area, and several coaches and athletes from those smaller communities measure themselves against the bigger schools from Lawrence throughout the year anyway; why not give them a chance to stack up on an even playing field?

So we will. This year, for the first time, the Journal-World’s all-area teams will include the best of the best from the city schools, as well as the rest of the area.

It’s clear that doing this will eliminate a few athletes from the list, but as long as they’re nominated and worthy of a mention, those kids will be recognized in some manner. Besides, wouldn’t it mean more if an athlete earned a postseason award that included the top players in the entire region?

I hope so.

I also hope that the people who pay attention to these things absorb the Lawrence athletes with ease. We’re not doing this to slight the area athletes by over-hyping those from Lawrence. It just seems that there should be a place for our city athletes to be honored, too.

With that said, it should be pointed out that these teams won’t be over-saturated with Lawrence athletes. That, too, would defeat the purpose. The goal is to blend the area and the city athletes on a team comprised of the top players from our coverage zone.

Postseason honors are great. Although they rarely drive athletes to deliver top performances on the field, they’re almost always in the backs of their minds – particularly with high schoolers.

And what’s wrong with that? If being recognized for outstanding achievements had no importance, there’d be no need for halls of fame, all-tournament teams or seasonal achievement awards.

Maybe those things don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, and they certainly don’t mean as much as the bottom line of winning and losing, but they should mean something. What about the athlete who shatters records but plays on a losing team? Where else can we honor the consistent contributors over the one-game wonders?

The all-area teams, complete with Lawrence athletes, will be released in the next few weeks. Nominations will be accepted until Nov. 15, and then the fun will begin.