Letter from IHSWCA President Cale Hoover

April 22, 2009

IHSWCA Members:

With great pleasure I assume the duties of president of our organization.  I would like to thank those office holders who have come before me.  I would like to thank Barry Humble of New Haven, for giving 2 years of service to the wrestling community.  I have learned a tremendous amount from those who have served before me, and I will lean on them heavily during the next two years.

The sport of wrestling has taken me on an amazing journey, which provides me with a somewhat unique vantage point.  I grew up in Albion, IN and attended Central Noble High School graduating in 1996.  Central Noble is a true small school, around 400 students most years.  The largest team at Central Noble during my four years their finished with 9 wrestlers.  I continued my education and wrestling career at Purdue University.  My wrestling career lasted about 2 years at Purdue before I decided to move on.  I graduated with a degree in Social Studies Education in 2001.

During my coaching career I’ve been fortunate to develop from several experiences.  I served as an assistant wrestling coach at Highland HS in Anderson, IN for 3 years and also coached freshman football for 2 years.  Highland was a great place to start, and I am grateful for having working with coaches Cary House and Kyle Poyer.  Hamilton Southeastern gave me my first head coaching opportunity in 2004, and I moved on to Center Grove in 2006.  I was asked to serve on the ISWA board in 2003 and have served as Cadet Director and now Junior Director.  I obviously have worked at some of the largest schools in the state, but I can tell you I have not lost the perspective that was gained from my days at Central Noble.

Two goals stand out to me at this time.  The first is to build our membership.  We all need to work at getting every wrestling coach in the state, high school, middle school, retired, etc. to join the association.  Increased numbers will make our organization stronger and give us more pull with the IHSAA.  Second, we must improve our communication.  One of our challenges is communicating with our lay coaches.  We have a high percentage of lay coaches in our sport, who do a great job, but who often do not receive items sent through the mail.  Also, not everyone frequently visits the association website.  We must utilize all available communication means which includes standard mail, email, and the IHSWCA website.

Our association has some important decisions to make in the next year.  We must decide what areas we want to focus on for our presentation in 2011.  The most talked about topics appear to be wrestle backs and class wrestling.  I can honestly tell you that we are not close to having either.  Wrestlebacks are more likely to pass, but at this point the odds are looking long against us.  Class wrestling greatly divides our wrestling community and we lack the consensus needed to move forward to the IHSAA.  In addition, the IHSAA commissioners have made it very clear that they are not in favor of expanding class sports at this time.  Despite this stance, I do believe a discussion on the topic has merit.  I believe the time is right for a survey in the next year to gather the perspective of the membership.

I have concerns about the current state of the organization.  Our 2009 election saw only 118 votes cast – or 33% turnout.  This has to improve if we are to have legitimacy in the eyes of the IHSAA.  Complaints have been made about the nomination process and also about current implementation of Regional Reps.  I can promise you that the nomination process at the Fall Clinic was done correctly and fairly.  Also, the Regional Rep idea was created to give members the opportunity to participate; however, much like our recent election, participation numbers remain low.

I look forward to serving as the association president.  Please contact me with questions, concerns, or ideas.  I want to begin better communication among us by expressing my belief that this position comes with an open-door policy.  With your help we can continue to improve our great sport in the state of Indiana.

Sincerely,

Cale A. Hoover

Center Grove HS, Social Studies Teacher, Head Wrestling Coach

IHSWCA President

ISWA Junior Director

Hooverc1@centergrove.k12.in.us

317-881-0581 ext. 1287

317-502-8796