Preps Plus

Here’s the thing about records. They’re a lot about circumstance. They’re a lot about skill, they’re a lot about talent, but they’re even more about circumstance.

That’s why the debate about Alex Asher recently setting the All-Central Virginia receiving record that’s been raging on in voicemails and e-mails directed at the Daily Progress is so interesting. There are a lot of circumstances surrounding this record.

Sports records don’t happen in a vacuum, rule changes happen. Roger Maris had 10 extra games to break Babe Ruth’s “unbreakable” single-season home run record, but baseball didn’t disallow the record despite some people’s protest that it was illegitimate.

That argument doesn’t even fly though with Asher’s record because Lieb actually had the opportunity to play in one more game during his career, two more if STAB loses to Covenant in the state semifinals Saturday. Lieb didn’t, because he caught just a single pass as a freshman, but he had the opportunity to do so, just as Asher had the opportunity to play as a freshman at Western Albemarle - when he had 300 yards receiving.

When both players’ yardage is divided over opportunity of games played (Asher played just two games before tearing his ACL as a Western junior), Asher averaged 60.7 yards per game while Lieb averaged 55.9. Both numbers are stunning over a four-year career.

There’s a host of complaints about private school students picking up an extra year, but it doesn’t appear that Asher’s case can really be one of them. Sure he had an extra year to develop physically, but he spent a good part of his career trying to battle back from an ACL tear he suffered early in his career, an impressive feat in and of itself. The general consensus among NFL officials is that an ACL takes a year to get back on the field and two to get back to full strength. And with about 1,300 yards coming from before his injury largely as a freshman and sophomore against public school competition, there isn’t a great deal of validity to the public versus private debate in this situation.

The bottom line is this — circumstances have to be shoved to the side at some point when it comes to records, and the numbers just have to stand. Asher took a fifth year, but they both played against different defensive backs. They both played in different systems (Asher in two offenses, Lieb in an offense that had the All-time rushing leader, Takeem Hedgeman in the backfield). They’re both completely different types of players.

Either way, being tops in Central Virginia in career recieving doesn’t settle any debate, it’s just the jumping off point. Lieb’s record doesn’t automatically make him the best pass catcher to ever play in the area, nor does Asher holding it now make him the best.

Both of those players would be the first to tell you that a lot of that has to do with their respective teams. With how well both programs, STAB and Monticello, run the ball to set up the pass. With the solid quarterbacks (Mark Jordan and Howie Long for Asher, Michael Graham and Mike Brown for Lieb) that threw them the ball. With how well the defense played for those teams and got the ball back in the offense’s hands. It has to do with all that. 

The biggest problem here? Both are great high school football players, some of the best the area has ever seen, any way you slice it. And arguments can be made from both sides. There aren’t many records out there that come without a debate, there just aren’t — because they’re largely about circumstance.