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    Y2CJ41

    2015 IHSWCA Vice Presidential Candidate Greg Ratliff

    1. Tell us what your background in wrestling is as a coach and as a competitor.

    I have been wrestling since the 6th grade. I got cut from the basketball team and my PE teacher/ wrestling coach Rod Dorsey made sure I got involved with wrestling. I wrestled for 4 years at Franklin Community High School and graduated in 2001. During my last two years of college at IU, I got involved in coaching at the school I student taught at, Mooresville High School. I have coached 2 years at Mooresville (assistant), 1 year at Franklin Community (assistant), 1 year at Benjamin Rush Middle School (head), and 7 years at Edgewood High School (3 assistant and 4 head)

     

    2. Why did you decide to run for office in the coaches association?

    I want to be involved with the association because it is an opportunity for me to help improve our sport. Wrestling fans are passionate and often very giving of time, energy and support to help improve the sport. I would like to help be an extension of that for our sport.

     

    3. What does the IHSWCA do well?

    The IHSWCA always has our sport’s best interest in mind. I know they have many good ideas and there are many people that give tons of time to make the association work. I like the way they have focused on bringing back the old team state and improving it.

     

    4. What can the IHSWCA improve on?

    I believe that we can probably work more on communicating with our members and the voices of our sport. It sounds like there has also already been a movement to start to incorporate a little more technology like virtual meetings.

     

    5. What do you think you can bring to the association as the VP and eventually president?

    I am always open minded and trying to find ways to improve things. I am not a guy that is stuck in his ways. I am all for incorporating technology to our process of doing things. I do a good job of promotion and building enthusiasm. I also feel that one of strong suits is to pay attention to small details and do some gritty and detailed work.

     

    6. Who was most influential in your life both as an athlete and coach?

    I have had many influential people in my life and try to take little pieces of information from every coaching person I have been involved with. There is no doubt in my mind though, that I would have never got involved with wrestling from a professional stand point had it not been for my high school coach Bob Hasseman. I loved being around the sport. I couldn’t get enough of it. I always thought that Hasseman had the best job in the world. He got to watch kids play sports all day, hang out in a weight-room, and then be around wrestling. That sounded like nothing but fun. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know reality beforehand. I always felt that I wanted to help people reach their potential like Coach Hassemen was doing on a daily basis.

     

    7. How would you go about recruiting more coaches to be members of the association?

    I think that coaches need to know why they should join. What is in it for them? I think there needs to be more email communication with the coaches on how to register.

     

    8. What makes Indiana high school wrestling so great?

    Wrestling is the greatest sport for many of those reasons that we often use to sell kids to join our sport; discipline, hard work and all of the other life lessons. Indiana is so great in particular because of the state tournament itself. It really is the best state finals of any sport in our state. I have had many people who attended their first wrestling event at the state finals and were absolutely impressed with the whole presentation.

     

    9. What other experiences outside of wrestling do you believe would help you in this position?

    My experiences as a Physical Education and Health teacher have helped me become a better leader and to manage situations and people effectively.

     

    10. What issue(s) do you feel the coaches association should address?

    I think we need to continue to address the team state tournament and making it an actual portion of the state tournament series.

     

    I like the idea of coaches having a singular stat/ match reporting such as trackwrestling. Football and basketball games are all reported in some capacity. It would be nice if wrestling matches weren’t so secretive.

     

    I like the idea of wrestle- back to determine a true top 4 at semi-state so we are less concerned with someone getting a bad draw. I also would like to see wrestle-backs to 3rd at the state tournament.

     

    I also think we need to look at the number of Saturday matches that we are currently participating in. As a coach I’m not going to get rid of those currently because I want my wrestlers to get as many opportunities as everyone else. That being said, Saturday 5 way dual meets make it hard for the casual observer to come watch. We want our sport to grow, but I have a hard time asking students to come sit in a gym for 8 hours.

     

    11. How would you improve communication between the IHSWCA and wrestling coaches?

    Communication doesn’t have to be anything crazy. It appears that there has already been a message board created to allow for communication on Indianamat. I think that we need to have an email database with all wrestling coaches that allows to communicate issues to them and hear their thoughts. Using technology such as surveymonkey is a great way to help find out pressing issues to our coaches as well.

     

    12. How does the IHSWCA become an association that is well respected by the IHSAA?

    I cannot speak on the current standing with the IHSAA, but being well respected is all about creating relationships with people. We need to take a civil approach to dealing with them and make sure they understand we are not just attacking them.

     

    13. In what direction do you see the IHSWCA Team State going?

    I believe the IHSWCA is currently doing the best they can within the parameters they are given. It obviously would be best if they qualifiers were based on the current year, but I also understand that we are currently not able to do that. Out of the whole mess of losing team state, a much improved team state was created. I like that team state is classed into the right amount of groups. Other positives are that it is in one singular venue on one day and all teams get at least 3 matches so that each place is determined 1-12. I think the future has to have some sort of in-season qualifier or something based on in-season rankings. That means that it can’t take up points on the schedule though.

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