Alright so today I’m sharing how I put together that Arizona high school baseball ranking and schedule thing for next year. Honestly it started ’cause I got sick of looking up stats all over the place last season. Messy stuff.
Getting Started and Gathering Data
First off, I knew I needed actual hard numbers, not just guessing. So I grabbed my laptop and recruited a couple buddies who know baseball. We basically camped out for days digging through:
- Last season’s final standings (printed ’em all out, highlighters everywhere)
- Senior graduation lists (felt like detective work finding ’em)
- Known returning players (tracked down coach interviews, local news blurbs)
- Tournament records (spreadsheets galore, seriously)
No fancy API magic here – just good old-fashioned typing and checking. Ended up with pages and pages of notes. My coffee mug became a permanent fixture.
Building the Rankings
This part was tricky. Decided the rankings needed a system, not just gut feeling. We set up points for different things:
- How many starters are coming back? (+2 points each)
- Did they win their division last year? (+5 points)
- Any powerhouse pitchers returning? (+3 points)
- New kids showing real skill? (Coach gossip counts! +1-3 points)
Started sorting teams based on these points. Lots of arguing with my buddies – “No way team X deserves higher than team Y!” – but we finally hammered out a top 25 list that felt mostly right.
Figuring Out the Schedule
This was the real headache. Pulled up:
- The Arizona Interscholastic Association master calendar
- Last year’s schedule patterns
- School district websites (so many dead links!)
Basically reverse-engineered it. Schools typically play certain rivals around the same time each year. Section games cluster in March/April. Big tournaments we know happen yearly – plugged those dates in first. Filled in the gaps based on historical matchups and school size divisions. Took forever cross-referencing.
Challenges and Double-Checking
Oh man, hit a few walls. Some smaller schools barely update their sites. Heard whispers about one district changing leagues – spent an afternoon just confirming that. Had to cold-call a couple athletic directors (awkward!). Double-checked every single matchup date against district calendars and last year’s equivalents. Found three errors in my first draft – typos mess things up!
Final step was staring at the whole thing wondering if it made any dang sense. Ran the schedule logic past a friend who coaches. Made a few tweaks based on his “Nah, they never play that early” comments.
Putting it Out There
Formatted it clean, made sure it was readable. Hit publish. And honestly? Holding my breath waiting for angry coaches or parents telling me I messed up their kid’s team placement or got a date wrong! Feels like predicting the weather sometimes. But hey, at least we tried to make it logical. Time will tell come next spring!