Now that the full list of High School Fall All-Americans is out, it's time to breakdown the Special Mentions, Honorable Mentions, and 100 All-Americans by the numbers. Below you will find each section of the list in full, with breakdowns by position, class, and state.

We've had a few questions about what our 'process' is for deciding the All-American list, and for those who skimmed the list and didn't read the introductions, we'll explain it one more time.

We start the process in the fall, paying attention to the leading candidates for the state Gatorade Player of the Year awards, who was earning MVP recognition in state tournaments, which players were receiving All-State and All-Area POY accolades and which players were making huge impacts on nationally-ranked teams, among other things. Then, in late-November, we sent the first e-mails to high school coaches that we were seeking nominees for High School All-American, making clear the following:
“To be a High School All-American, you must have made a massive impact on your high school team. ‘Massive’ is subjective, but at a minimum requires that you be the best player on your team and one of the top 3-5 players in your state regardless of class, except for volleyball hotbeds like California, Texas, Illinois…, where you must be among the 10 best HIGH SCHOOL players regardless of class.”

This has been our process for years. So nothing should really come as a surprise. After receiving hundreds of nominations, we had to began the sorting process, taking the above details into consideration, as well as some additional details revolving around Covid-19 and it's impact on the high school volleyball landscape. We took the core of the list and followed our traditional stance, seniors got preference over juniors who got preference over sophomores, etc. Besides the obvious difference of 100 All-Americans rather than 150, we also decided to group all Honorable Mentions together instead of separating them with the 'High Honorable' label. However, the 'High Honorable Mentions' and the full 150 selections should be back for the Fall, hopefully.

In total, we had just over 300 athletes listed between all three categories, with more Spring All-Americans to come. Still, it was necessary to make cuts, which was no easy or enjoyable process. There are certainly more than that number who had great fall seasons. But the more the list expands, the less meaningful the distinction becomes. 

So, let's crunch those numbers and see how the statistics shake out.