1943, you just got the answer to the question you posed at the banquet.
Somebody threw in the name of Rob Sessoms for short at the beach. Way before my time! Driller you probably remember.
All time SE District team is very hard to pick. There are a number of great players from various schools. What compounds the problem is many of them all play the same position. In high school often the best player is the teams shortstop even if later he is moved to another position. Also transfers make some decisions harder. If we say that you have to graduate from a SE school and have played your most significant season or seasons there that disqualifies some ie BJ Upton only one of his 3 varsity seasons was at Hickory. His jr and sr years were at GCA. With this in mind and with some shifting of positions here's my picks;
1st Ryan Pond WB
2nd Scott Sizemore Hickory
SS Chris Rahl GB
3rd David Wright Hickory
Rf Michael Cuddyer GB
Cf Justin Upton GB
Lf Steve Vadanais IR
C Brian Anderson GB
Ut Greg Sexton Nansemond River
RHP Justin Orenduff WB
RHP Anthony Shawler Oscar Smith
RHP Brian Mansfield Hickory
LHP Gary Ward Hickory
LHP Jimmy Anderson WB
LHP Mike LaFluer GB
Sorry to all that I left off that had great careers.
1st Ryan Pond WB
2nd Scott Sizemore Hickory
SS Chris Rahl GB
3rd David Wright Hickory
Rf Michael Cuddyer GB
Cf Justin Upton GB
Lf Steve Vadanais IR
C Brian Anderson GB
Ut Greg Sexton Nansemond River
RHP Justin Orenduff WB
RHP Anthony Shawler Oscar Smith
RHP Brian Mansfield Hickory
LHP Gary Ward Hickory
LHP Jimmy Anderson WB
LHP Mike LaFluer GB
Sorry to all that I left off that had great careers.
Vadanais over guys like justin castillo and alvin keels
I must admit to not remembering the players you spoke of. Vadanais batted .561 for Indian River and was Southeastern Player of the Year in 2000. He had a 1.045 slg % with 11 doubles and 7 hrs. He had 37 hits and scored 32 runs.
Vadanais had one of the best offensive years in 99 of anyone I have ever seen. He didn't have the "career" a lot of other guys had...I think Cory Bauswell should get some mention for catcher or as 2nd team catcher behind Brian Anderson. Its just difficult with what people are going on. Curtice was more dominating in high school than Mansfield, Orenduff, and Lafleur. I watched or hit against all of them first hand. Craig Sizemore gets my vote high on this list somewhere in the infield, the guy hit in 46 straight college games.
Mike Lafluer was 11-1 with a 1.50 era his senior year as he led Great Bridge to a state title. Orenduff was dominant in high school, college at VCU and on the US National team. His pro career has had some injury problems but when healthy he has been effective. Curtice never realized the promise of being a first round draft choice due to injury. Mansfield had a very good high school career but was overused and never performed in college.
As I understand it, Mansfield pretty much choose academics over baseball. He went to Coastal Caroling and was redshirted his freshman year. The kid apparently is an outstanding student as CCU named him the outstanding science student at CCU his freshman year. He choose to change majors to business and was subsequently named named the top business student at CCU his sophomore year. Brian choose to hang up the cleats... it wasn't a failure to perform. It was more that he just choose to move on.
I think that Justin Castillo was the one that won SE PoY in 1999. He was also on that IR team. Cory Bauswell was a beast too.
You are right that Brian mansfield was an outstanding student. His senior year in HS he was overused and his velocity fell off drastically in the conference tournament. He never seemed to recover. His second season at Coastal was lackluster and certainly helped with his decision to concentrate on academics.
VaDad,
It's not particulary fair to characterize Mansfield's sophomore year at Coastal as "lackluster". More accurate is that he wasn't given a chance which is not unusual in CCU's program. He was on the team for one half of the year and only pitched 3 or 4 innings as memory serves.
Because of his outstanding academics, Brian was offered a lucrative internship out of state. There was a deadline involved that prevented him from doing both baseball and the internship. We all know what his decision was.
At CCU Brian was an 85 to 87 mph guy who touched 90 when he reared back. Had he remained on the team, Brian may well have contributed significantly to a pretty successful program.
It's not particulary fair to characterize Mansfield's sophomore year at Coastal as "lackluster". More accurate is that he wasn't given a chance which is not unusual in CCU's program. He was on the team for one half of the year and only pitched 3 or 4 innings as memory serves.
Because of his outstanding academics, Brian was offered a lucrative internship out of state. There was a deadline involved that prevented him from doing both baseball and the internship. We all know what his decision was.
At CCU Brian was an 85 to 87 mph guy who touched 90 when he reared back. Had he remained on the team, Brian may well have contributed significantly to a pretty successful program.
Based on your post Brian made an excellant decision.