Coach Peck...No doubt in my mind that resources now are more available than in the past to organize rankings. I just think there's more research done today than in the past to get more "accurate" rankings. My main point was in the ninties when Rick Chitwood published The American Grappler and the Prep Power Poll, a subscription fee was charged. I thought the magazine then was great and today I still have many issues to look back on! Back then, the magazine was voted the National Wrestling Media Association "Publication of the Year". Not sure what the exact downfall was, could of been lack of subscriptions to cover costs such as.... payroll, printing, and postage, who knows??? I would like to see Indiana Wrestling get the recognition it deserves and I think this site is a great start. It may be minimal to run a website like you noted....but I think Y2CJ41 could do bigger and better things with more funds to support....instead of coming from his own pocket. Not discounting the efforts and time spent on the magazine/rankings in the past...just supporting efforts being done now, so Indiana Wrestling can continue to grow in the future.
For years finding any wrestling information was harder than you know what. I wrestled in the Junior Nationals the second year they had it (I think), and I had no clue who any of the guys were. Today everybody knows everybody else.
The "Indiana Grappler" was a very good magazine at one time (I would have to look at back issues to see when it was discontinued), but Rick was trying to make a living publishing it which eventually became its downfall. In the firt few years, when he was concentrating on Indiana Wrestliing he had a decent number of subscribers. He had a pretty good deal in that most coaches subscribed through the IHSWCA when they paid their membership fee, and the ISWA paid him for some subscriptions, and to place what has now become the ISWA Annual Publication in the January (or Dec.) issue. The prcie was reasonable to begin with. I cannot remember what it was, but it was no where near the $39 you mentioned for the issues in later years.
Anyway, Rick had a nice Indiana magazine and was making some money. I think (please note the "I") he finally got to a point where he either wanted to make more money, or gain more prestige (maybe a combination of the two) so he decided to add more National content and he began to slowly raise the price. He eventually changed the name to the "American Grappler". Some of his content was good, but as time went on more and more of the National stuff was from USA Wrestling news releases and stuff that was done in more detail elsewhere. As more National stuff appeared in the Grappler there was less and less Indiana information. He gave up the Power Poll (Rankings) which the IHSWCA took back over and sent out for basically what it cost to do. He priced himself out of the ISWA gig and the IHSWCA quit including the Grappler as part of the membership costs because it contained less and less Indiana information.
I get the impression that people think I am trying to minimize what it takes to do something like Indianamat, or that I am saying that no one should make any money off of Indianamat. Both could not be further from the truth. I know as well as anyone the amount of time something like this takes. I put in an unreasonable amount of time and I know Joe puts in more. I also know that if a fee were put in place for rankings, or whatever, Joe (and whomever else is involved) might make some money which I doubt Joe (being a wrestler) would be smart enough to spend on a new car, or a present for his future wife, or place in a 401K because he would probably blow it all on something frivolus like going to the NCAAs, or Junior/Cadet Nationals, or World Team Trials, or etc, to cover Wrestling.
