Low voter response for all-state

Every four years when the United States elects a president, everybody bemoans the fact that less than 60% of the voting-age population casts a ballot for the leader of the Free World.

I only wish the Herald-Leader got that kind of participation from Kentucky’s high school basketball coaches in determining who makes all-state.

The Herald-Leader’s 2007 boys’ and girls’ all-state teams will be published on Sunday. I feel confident that they’ll be a pretty good representation of the best players in the state, but not because of an overwhelming response from the people most closely involved in hoops. Every coach in the state receives a ballot from us, and they’re asked to list the 10 best players, along with a coach of the year. That doesn’t sound like a difficult or time-consuming task, but it apparently is to the majority of coaches. This year only about 35% of them bothered to return a ballot. For a (supposed) basketball-crazy state, that’s a pitiful response.

So if you’ve got a gripe about who did or didn’t make our all-state teams, don’t lodge it with me. Ask the coaches in your region if they filled out a ballot. If they said they did, they were in the minority.