The first All-America team comprised of college football players, picked by Caspar Whitney and Walter Camp in 1889 for a magazine called The Week’s Sport. Now, each fall, over 15 sporting news organizations select their own All-American team to recognize that season’s most outstanding performers at their respective positions. Any player who is named to the first team by at least half the official selectors for a given season is recognized as being a consensus All-American. But what’s this got to do with kubb?
Throughout the 2021 kubb season I had been keeping tabs on my peers and how their seasons were going and wondering to myself, am I an All-American? How would my resume stack up against all the players across the country? So at the end of the season, I sat down and compiled resumes, looked at stats, asked for feedback from some peers, and came up with my own list of the 2021 Kubb All-American team. This is my team, based on my opinion, using criteria I created. We can, and should, debate the selections, how I came to my conclusions, and think about how you would do it differently. Then I would encourage you to come up with your own.
First, I had to come up with a minimum criterion for selection. When you see my team, you will notice some big named players that are not on the list. I mean no disrespect those players. Who am I to say that winning the U.S. National Kubb Championship isn’t more important or better than selecting a player that won three or four other, smaller tournaments? That’s for each of us to decide. I decided to ensure I was placing importance to the entire season and to the entire country, so I would enforce that each selected player must have three top-three finishes in the calendar year. I felt that this was fair because it is similar to other sports having minimum number of appearances or at-bats or innings pitched to be eligible for post-season awards. I also decided that I would not decide how big or small a tournament had to be to be considered a “top-three finish at a tournament.” I considered all tournaments. Big ones, small ones, scramblers, virtual leagues, in-person leagues, everything was considered. That seemed fair to me.
Then I started to consider, how to select a team? Naturally, I decided on selecting six players for my All-American team. One player for each baton on my team. I decided to name two blasters, two 8 meter players, and then have two flex positions. Think of the flex as the flex on a fantasy sports team. They can be that flexible player that can do it all, be an extra 8 meter player, or an extra blaster—whatever we need them to be. I also decided to pick two players to distinguish as the Bästa Inkastares of the 2021 season. They could be players only chosen that spot or be repeat players from the positions I had already chosen. This season, my Bästa Inkastares were also my 8 meter players. But I felt like in certain years, you could recognize someone who specializes in the kubb tossing phase and wasn’t a blaster, 8 meter, or flex.
So with all that out of the way, here’s my 2021 team.
Blaster: Joe Dekan
- Second Place Finishes: Kubb City Winter Scrambler
- Third Place Finishes: U.S. National Kubb Championship, Dallas Oktoberfest Tournament
Blaster: J.R. Hrejsa
- First Place Finishes: Spring Fling Kubb Scrambler, Keystone Kubb Virtual Kubb League (Spring)
- Second Place Finishes: East Coast Kubb Championship, Queen City Spring Fling
- Third Place Finishes: Illinois Kubb Championship
Flex: Gordon Kauffman
- First Place Finishes: Eau Claire Kubb League (Spring), Eau Claire Kubb League (Fall), Lindsborg Midsummer’s Festival Kubb Tournament
- Second Place Finishes: U.S. Kubb Open, Illinois Kubb Championship
Flex: Steve Dolan
- First Place Finishes: American Swedish Institute Kubb League, Michigan Kubb Championship
- Second Place Finishes: Kubb on a Stick
- Third Place Finishes: Kubbing to Kick Cancer, Great Lakes 1v1 Kubb Championship
8 Meter: Ethan Forney
- First Place Finishes: Paw Print Kubb Tournament, Kubb on a Stick, U.S. Kubb Open, Illinois Kubb Championship
- Second Place Finishes: U.S. National Kubb Championship
8 Meter: Adam Holtz
- First Place Finishes: Kubb on a Stick, East Coast Kubb Championship, Stoughton Kubb Invitational
- Second Place Finishes: Michigan Kubb Championship, Illinois Kubb Championship, Keystone Kubb Virtual Kubb League (Spring), Great Lakes 1v1 Kubb Championship, Eau Claire Kubb League (Spring)
Inkastre: Ethan Forney
Inkastre: Adam Holtz
This was an incredibly difficult task. I was juggling names back-and-forth even after the last tournament of the year came to an end. I’m sure there are players that were snubbed. I have a lengthy list of Honorable Mentions. The number is parenthesis is number of top-three finishes. Lars Arneson (4), Bob Hickes (5), Cody Glorioso (4), Matt Green (4), Dan Ivanuck (5), Jason “J.P.” Larson (4), and Demian Moore (5).
Lastly, I decided that I should name the National Player of the Year. You can probably guess the two names that have been trading it back-and-forth all year long.
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