Summertime for many media outlets often signals the time for them to select Athletes of the Year in their circulation or listenership area. Sometimes it’s clear cut, sometimes it’s very difficult.

For the 30th year, The Gazette showcased its Athletes of the Year last weekend. The winners, emerging from a deep pool, were Marcus Paige of Linn-Mar and Shelly Stumpff of Iowa City West. Both were very deserving.

You will find no criticism here of the selections made by my former colleagues that work for my former employer. The Gazette circulation area covers nearly half of Eastern Iowa, in which numerous talented boys and girls abound.

Rather, I would like to give you some insight into the selection process of such an endeavor. I was one of the people who initiated the Gazette Athlete of the Year and sat in on half of the selections that have been made. Originally, the idea was born of the idea to honor Jack Ogden, long-time sportswriter who devoted much of his time to high school athletes. His “Meet the Preps’’ column ran regularly, spotlighting the endeavors of high school athletes in Eastern Iowa.

The first two Gazette selections, in 1983, were fairly easy. Marion’s Todd Twachtmann was a talented, multi-sport star on the male side. Jefferson’s Lisa Becker was a prolific basketball player and a major talent on the girls’ side.

The second year selections on the boys side illustrates the difficulty of these types of endeavors.

Kennedy’s Al Lorenzen led his team to the state basketball championship and was named to the McDonald’ All-America team, a rarity for an Iowa prep at the time. You also had Marv Cook of West Branch, a terrific multi-sport athlete. Both had committed to Iowa, Lorenzen in basketball during his junior season and Cook in football.

Here’s what we faced in the voting: Do we name an individual who excelled at the national level in one sport, or do we choose an athlete who was excellent in several sports? There also was the matter of measuring the skills of an athlete at a larger school and one at a smaller school, trying to figure how the latter would fare in a conference with stiffer competition.

Best of my recollection, either Lorenzen or Cook took the vote by a narrow margin. But a staff discussion ensued. How could we select one and not the other? A decision was made to name them co-Athletes of the Year, and I think it was a good one.

Each year, selection committees for Athletes of the Year have to weigh two things: 1. Is a one-sport athlete who is a major-college talent more deserving than a multi-sport star? And,  2. How do you weigh an athlete who competes at a large school against someone whose competition theoretically is less challenging?

It is a difficult process of which I am fully aware.

Paige was selected on his considerable merits as a one-sport athlete, perhaps the Metro area’s greatest basketball player. He will be on a national stage soon as a point-guard with North Carolina. Stumpff was instrumental  in West winning two state championships this season, and perhaps a third if the softball team comes through.

I’m sure my former colleagues faced some difficult deliberations, but I think they got it right. It’s just not always as easy as it looks.

(Mark Dukes is former sports editor of the Cedar Rapid Gazette. He is co-host of The Gym Class radio show weekdays from 3-4 p.m. on KGYM-AM 1600 and FM-106.3.)