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Imagine Folarin Campbell finding Kevin Durant for an open 3-pointer, with Roy Hibbert crashing the boards.
Or what about Freddy Adu and Israel Sesay linking up top, running onto passes from Rodney Wallace?
Or an offensive backfield of Ike Whitaker, Pat Lazear and Marcus Mason?
Time brings perspective; some incredible talents have come through the ranks in Montgomery County since the turn of the century. Some are household names. More are destined for future stardom. Yet others are filed in the where-are-they-now drawer.
That's where we come into play.
Over the next month, The Gazette sports staff will crunch the numbers, scour the archives and listen to tales of the greatest high school athletes of the last 10 years. On three consecutive Wednesdays — Dec. 23, Dec. 30 and Jan. 6 — we will unveil 20 All-Decade lists for fall, winter and spring sports.
Choosing will not be easy. We have access to every All-Gazette team published this decade, but they only tell part of the story.
We know Rochelle Coleman was an all-time girls basketball great. But most of the current staff never saw her lead Paint Branch to the Class 3A state championship in 2001, while we all watched Tarik Hislop do it seven years later. What if we have to choose between the two?
That's where you come into play. We will not be doing this alone.
Over the coming weeks, our staff will contact a number of long-serving coaches who stood on the sidelines either with or opposite the best of the best. We are also looking for input from our readers.
Maybe you played soccer at Watkins Mill and cannot imagine anyone better than Noelle Keselica. Maybe your testimonial could break the tie between 2008 volleyball co-Players of the Year Brighid Casey and Becky West.
Send us your nominations and anecdotes — and, when the teams are announced, your inevitable disagreements — to sports@gazette.net.
Like our All-Gazette teams, there will be a lot of variables: statistics, team accomplishments and big-game performances, to name a few, with some subjective opinion thrown in.
There are also guidelines. Future achievement is an advantage; high school performance is preeminent. To be eligible, a player must have been on at least one All-Gazette team since 2000.
For instance, Kennedy graduate Derrick Gray now plays for the Oakland Raiders, but did not make an All-Gazette football list in high school. Deontay Twyman did not even play in college, but was a record-setting quarterback at Sherwood. Twyman is eligible for the team; Gray is not.
It's a big task. Think you can help? Drop us a line with some suggestions.
And let the debate begin.
All-Decade schedule
On three consecutive Wednesdays during the holiday season, The Gazette will unveil its All-Decade teams. Here is what to look for when:
Dec. 23: Fall sports (2000-2009)
Cross country
Field hockey
Football
Boys soccer
Girls soccer
Girls tennis
Girls volleyball
Dec. 30: Winter sports (1999-2000 through 2008-09)
Boys basketball
Girls basketball
Boys indoor track
Girls indoor track
Boys swimming
Girls swimming
Wrestling
Jan. 6: Spring sports (2000-2009)
Baseball
Boys lacrosse
Girls lacrosse
Softball
Boys track and field
Girls track and field
