Who were Delaware's top high school athletes in the 2021-22 season? Here are our picks.
It was a wild spring sports season filled with memorable moments, memorable performances and most importantly, memorable athletes. So, who were the best spring sports athletes in Delaware?
After all the games were played and the state championships decided, we put together our lists for the 2022 season.
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Top 50 boys athletes in Delaware
The First State has produced numerous stars over the years. And a look into the pipeline – the First State’s high schools – shows there are many more potential stars on the way.
That’s why ranking the Top 50 boys athletes in Delaware high school sports for the 2021-22 school year is so difficult.
It’s easy to come up with a long list of high achievers. It’s hard to try to put them in some sort of order, and even harder to determine who won’t make the list.
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Top 50 girls athletes in Delaware
How can you compare athletes from different sports?
Realistically, you can’t. Each sport is unique, requiring different athletic abilities and skill sets to be the best.
But we’re going to give it our best shot to rank the Top 50 girls athletes from all of Delaware high school sports during the 2021-22 school year.
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Top 32 players in Delaware high school baseball
Delaware’s high school baseball season was a nail-biter, right down to the final out. It was a season full of close finishes and clutch plays made by clutch players.
After checking out the voting of the state’s head coaches and consulting with longtime trusted observers, here's our list of the Top 32 players in Delaware high school baseball for the 2022 season.
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Top 32 players in Delaware high school softball
Great pitching. Stellar defense. big hitters. Delaware high school softball had all of that and more this spring, which made narrowing the list and putting a final ranking in order exceptionally difficult.
We checked out the voting of the Delaware High School Softball Coaches Association and consulted with a veteran coach. So here's our list of the 38 players from all over the state.
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Top 42 players in high school boys lacrosse
Delaware’s high school boys lacrosse season ended exactly the way most fans expected it would.
With Salesianum and Cape Henlopen meeting in another ferociously contested DIAA championship game.
So when we combed through the All-State voting of the Delaware High School Boys Lacrosse Coaches Association and consulted with a longtime observer, it was no surprise to see Salesianum and Cape Henlopen take up almost half of the spots in our final Top 42 player rankings.
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Top 42 players in high school girls lacrosse
One of these years, another team will defeat Cape Henlopen in the DIAA Girls Lacrosse Tournament.
This year was not the year.
So when we broke down the All-State voting by the Delaware High School Girls Lacrosse Coaches Association and consulted with a longtime observer, 10 Vikings wound up scattered through our final ranking of the state’s Top 43 players for this season.
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Top 46 players in Delaware high school girls soccer
The DIAA girls soccer state championships capped a season full of big plays in exciting games, which made compiling our final player rankings a difficult task. The tournament capped a season full of big plays in exciting games, which made compiling our final player rankings a difficult task.
After going through the All-State voting of the Delaware High School Girls Soccer Coaches Association and consulting with a longtime observer of the sport, we decided 20, 30 or 40 even spots weren’t enough to recognize the state’s best. So we expanded the rankings to 46 players, with athletes from every conference in Delaware included.
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Top 40 players in Delaware high school boys basketball
The DIAA Boys Basketball Tournament produced one of the most memorable, surprising championship games in recent memory as third-seeded Tower Hill splashed 13 3-pointers, including eight of its first nine in the first 11 minutes, on the way to a dominating, 79-43 victory over top-seeded Salesianum.
The result, as well as the playoffs and regular season, shook up Delaware Online’s final Top 40 player rankings.
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Top 40 players in Delaware high school girls basketball
The DIAA Girls Basketball Tournament came down to the usual suspects.
But there was a first-time champion, and some rapidly improving teams that shook up the postseason with deep playoff runs.
All of the surprising results continually shuffled the order of Delaware Online’s Top 40 player rankings.
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Top 100 players in Delaware high school football
After the longest season in Delaware high school football history came to a close, it was tough to narrow the list of the state’s most outstanding players. It was even tougher to put them in order for our final Delaware Online Top 100. There is virtually no difference in the talent of many of these standouts, and all made a sizeable impact for their teams.
Here are the best of the best, the players ranked No. 1-50. Here are the final rankings with the players rated 51-100.
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Top 26 players in Delaware high school volleyball
Most volleyball teams are dangerous when their big scorers are on the front line.
Saint Mark’s was dangerous no matter where their players were positioned this season. It’s why Saint Mark’s has six players among the top 16 in our final Delaware high school volleyball player rankings.
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Top 30 players in Delaware high school boys soccer
Salesianum soccer coach Scott Mosier doesn’t know how to stop Jake Ross.
But that’s OK. Ross played on Mosier’s team.
The 6-foot-3 junior was named the state’s Player of the Year and a United Soccer Coaches National All-American. He is also No. 1 in our final ranking of the Top 30 high school boys soccer players in Delaware.
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Top 30 players in Delaware high school field hockey
When it comes to Delaware high school field hockey, it’s Delmar, Cape Henlopen and everybody else.
Delmar has won 96 straight games and six consecutive state championships, including all five Division II crowns since DIAA split the state tournament into two divisions.
Cape Henlopen has swept all five Division I championships. The Vikings are 80-8 in those five years, with all but one of the losses coming to Delmar.
So it’s no surprise that our final ranking of the top players in Delaware high school field hockey for 2021 is dominated by the two schools.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Who were Delaware's top high school athletes in 2021-22?
