First, let me say up front that I'm not stating that anyone is doing anything wrong. Further, I'm not posting this out of sour grapes, as I don't have a kid or relative who plays high school baseball. With that said, I would submit to the powers that be that the optics on the selection of all-state players leaves something to be desired.
I know that all-state selections are made by the coaches who are members of the NMBCA. If you are not a member of the NMBCA, you cannot vote as a coach. You can become a member by paying the annual dues or attending the annual clinic (payment of the fee to attend the clinic automatically makes you a NMBCA member, which allows you to vote on all-state). Thus, the logic is that, being able to vote on all-state selections at the end of the season is motivation to join the NMBCA, thereby promoting your players through all-state voting. This logic makes sense and is understandable.
The issue is that the coaches who are members and are entitled to vote are voting primarily for their own players. Coaches are not at fault for doing this. If I was a coach, I would promote my own players as well and vote for them. However, the result of this structure is that kids who are on strong teams, but whose coach is not a NMBCA member, are getting few, if any, votes. The obvious example this year is the 4A all-state selections. Albuquerque Academy, the state champion, did not have a single player elected to first team, second team or honorable mention for any position.
Here is the 4A all-state breakdown by school for all spots:
St. Pius (runner-up): 7 players
Artesia (semis): 5 players
Miyamura (semis): 6 players
Goddard (quarters): 3
Belen: 2
Ruidoso: 1
Santa T (quarters): 1
Valencia: 1
Portales: 1
I'm sure that AA fans were not too happy about not having a single player make all-state. Further, I realize the response from NMBCA is: "talk to your coach--it's his problem. If he was a member, he could have voted some of his players onto the all-state team." However, the reality is that, regardless of anyone's position or the structure, the all-state listing lacks credibility to an outside person. Again, it's an optics issue. No reasonable person who would put together a list of the best players in 4A would not list a single player from AA. Thus, from an outsider, the list of all-state players is not objective.
I don't necessarily know the solution to this, but I have some ideas. What if a certain number of spots must be slotted, based upon performance of that team in the playoffs? For example, no matter which coaches are members of NMBCA, the team who wins the state championship must have (pick a number) players on the all-state teams. Then, the runner-up "x" number of players, semifinal teams get "y" number of players, etc. Of course, a team could have more players elected.
Another option: every coach gets to vote on all-state players, even if not a member of the NMBCA, but the votes of coaches who are NMBCA members get weighted more heavily than votes by non-member coaches. That way, membership does give that coaches' votes an advantage because of membership.
Third option, which some may not like, is NMBCA coaches cannot vote for more than a certain number of their own players for all-state. The idea with this approach is that a slightly broader number of players from other schools may be elected.
Sorry for the long post. I'm sure that the NMBCA member coaches are probably aware of this issue and may be fine with the current structure and how the voting plays out. I just thought that, as an outsider, the topic was worth discussing because of the unique voting outcome this year. I used 4A as an example, but perhaps there was a similar issue with 5A or 3A. Finally, don't take this post as any way about ST. I have a ST logo because my son went there some years ago. I hardly know any of the ST players this year and I don't even know if the ST coach is a NMBCA member. I'm just a guy who follows high school and college baseball in the region fairly closely because I love the game.
