EDITORIAL: ‘Best of Nevada Preps’ honors state’s top high school athletes

Las Vegas has no shortage of sports goings-on. There's the ever-prevalent UNLV men's basketball team, and all its fans pining for a return to the huge success of the Jerry Tarkanian era. Or even the modest success of the Lon Kruger era, for that matter.

There's the sonic boom of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, headquartered here but making noise around the world with huge fights seemingly every weekend. There's boxing, of course, and all the fanfare at the sports books in this unique city.

But Las Vegas, and all of Nevada, also share something in common with every other state: a great high school sports scene, though the coaches and athletes involved often don't get the recognition they deserve. The Review-Journal has been working to change that, particularly in the past few months, and the Sports sections of the past week bear that out.

As R-J sports editor Bill Bradley announced in a Dec. 19 article: "Beginning today, we will display a page a day to present the athletes we have selected as All-State honorees for what we call 'Best of Nevada Preps.'" The nine-day series unveils the All-State teams for the fall sports season, as selected by R-J prep editor Damon Seiters and reporters Bartt Davis, David Schoen and Ashton Ferguson.

The series will culminate Sunday with a two-page color spread for the All-State football team. And that's just the beginning. "Best of Nevada Preps" will roll out a similar series following both the winter and spring sports seasons.

But wait, there's more, as Mr. Bradley noted. "This project will culminate in mid-June with the Review-Journal's first Best of Nevada Preps Award Banquet. The event … will feature a nationally known athlete who will be a featured speaker."

If you missed any of the seven previous All-State teams announced, go back and take a look at those papers. While you're at it, skip ahead in today's paper and check out the All-State girls soccer team, and of course Sunday's All-State football team. You can also get a full recounting of the teams at the Review-Journal's high school sports website, nevadapreps.com.

While you're at nevadapreps.com, you may find it worth your time to surf around a bit and see all the other ways the R-J is working to enhance its high school sports coverage. You'll find information on every team, every sport, every player, from Agassi Prep to Yerington and everywhere in between. We hope you'll agree that the R-J's commitment to prep sports is as strong as ever, and getting stronger.

Congratulations to the first round of "Best of Nevada Preps" honorees.