Most of them started practicing in near-freezing temperatures in the middle of March and many of them ended their season in near-record heat in late May and early June. In between there were proms, award nights, final exams, the challenge of looking for a summer job and, for some, graduation.

Yet, somehow, 240 Rhode Island high school student/athletes maintained their focus through all of the end-of-the-school-year distractions and delivered performances that earned them an elite honor – Providence Journal All-State selection.

The 240 first- and second-team All-Staters are the best of the approximately 8,000 teenagers who played high school sports in Rhode Island this spring.

Sometimes those of us in the sports media are accused of over-dramatizing the importance of sports by relating things like home runs, goals and fast times to a person’s perception of what makes life meaningful and productive.

There’s probably some truth to that, but sports does present an opportunity to achieve something special if you’re willing to work for it, especially for young people. Teenagers who stay focused on the task of reaching a goal in the midst of an extensive end-of-the-school-year social calendar definitely have taken advantage of an important life-learning opportunity. Their high school athletic experience hopefully will serve as a life-long reminder to the All-Staters that dedication can produce rewarding experiences.

For some, the accomplishment that earned All-State selection is another step in an athletic career that will extend beyond high school competition. For others, their All-State achievement will be the highlight of their athletic careers.

But regardless of what their athletic future holds, it’s a safe bet that for everyone their All-State season has provided life-long memories.

After all, how will Anthony Meo, Dan Hopkins and Ryan Raleigh ever forget the year they played a major role in the Cranston West baseball team becoming the first public high school baseball team in 33 years to win back-to-back Division I state titles?

Julie Ruggieri, Noel Barlow, Olivia Froncillo and Hilary Salander will always remember that they were the mainstays of the team that kept the Barrington string alive as the only team that has ever won a Rhode Island Interscholastic League girls state lacrosse title, as they gave the Eagles their seventh consecutive state crown.

Decades from now, at some family gathering, Kyle and Jon Burke may reminisce about the year that the two brothers were the top players on the South Kingstown tennis team that won its ninth consecutive title by beating a team in the state title match that had beaten the Rebels twice during the regular season.

You don’t forget the year you were an All-Stater.

THIS SPECIAL section contains Providence Journal first- and second-team All-State selections in baseball, fast-pitch softball, girls and boys golf, boys tennis, boys volleyball, girls and boys lacrosse and girls and boys track. It also contains the all-class and all-division selections made by the coaches associations in most of those sports.

Journal All-State selections are made by members of the Journal sports department with input from coaches in each sport. Any student/athlete who is a member of a Rhode Island high school team or competes as an individual representing a Rhode Island high school in interscholastic competition against other Rhode Island high school athletes is eligible for All-State consideration. Only competition against Rhode Island high school athletes in school-sanctioned events is considered in evaluating All-State candidates.

In addition to the Journal All-State selections and coaches all-division selections, this section also contains a group of Independent Stars. The Independent Stars are student/athletes at Rhode Island schools who compete mainly against non-Rhode Island schools and therefore have a limited opportunity to qualify for All-State consideration.

In most cases, the number of athletes selected to each Journal All-State team is the same as the number of players used by a team in competition, (i.e., six players in volleyball). In the case of the All-State baseball team, because Interscholastic League teams played two to three regularly scheduled games each week, a team must use more than one pitcher on a regular basis. The All-State team, therefore, includes three pitchers. Also, because Journal All-Staters are considered the best athletes in their sport, the All-State tennis team is composed of 10 singles players because under R.I. Interscholastic League rules the best players on each team must play singles.