Cale Hoover Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cale Hoover Posted May 7, 2009 Author Share Posted May 7, 2009 May 7th, 2009 IHSWCA Members: On April 29th the IHSWCA Executive Committee met with Commissioners Ress and Cox of the IHSAA. Four items of concerns were discussed as well as other topics and issues surrounding wrestling and high school sports in Indiana. It appears as though two changes may be put in place for next season. The first change would be made to the sectional scoring system. Scoring would now begin at the quarterfinal round. This concern was raised because 28 of our 32 sectionals have more than 8 teams. It is now possible for points to be scored in the pigtail round because of getting fortunate draws. In many cases teams are not only picking up these extra matches, but are receiving forfeits in them. The hope is this change will make the sectional scoring system fairer to all teams. The second change would allow teams to weigh-in 28 wrestlers in the team portion of the tournament series. We are currently allowed to weigh-in 24, and the IHSWCA believe this was a change that could easily be made and would help the programs who advance in the team tournament series. The open room policy was also discussed, and on Monday the IHSAA ruled on this policy. We were told that the IHSAA would be looking into open rooms very closely because they are concerned about undue influence. With Indiana?s decision to allow parents to choose the public school of their choice, the worry is recruiting will be an issue. I want to remind all of members and schools that open rooms are for students of your school only and are voluntary. You cannot invite kids from around the state to attend open rooms. If you want to kids from other schools you must be a USA Wrestling (ISWA) or HYWAY club and every kid there must be a member as well. If they are not you are in violation. ISWA sponsored RTC?s are within the spirit of the rule as long as all participants are USA Wrestling card holders. We were given some advice on this matter by the commissioners. Do not advertise on IHSWCA.com or Indianamat.com as having open rooms where others are invited. You need to come up with another name for the workout and make sure all participants are a club member (USA Wrestling or HYWAY). I ask you as the Junior Director for the ISWA that you do not call them RTC?s unless you are an ISWA recognized RTC. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cale Hoover Posted August 21, 2009 Author Share Posted August 21, 2009 8/20/2009 IHSWCA members and the wrestling community: The IHSWCA executive board would like to welcome all the student-athletes and teachers back to school. I know personally it is an exciting time as I start making plans for another season. Indiana had some excellent results this summer. Many teams participated in the Disney Duals and the ISWA organized its annual summer trips including Cadet/Junior Nationals in Fargo. Now that the summer tournaments have concluded, it is back to work. Everyone should expect to see some changes this year from an association standpoint so stay on the lookout for information. We do have some good news to announce. The Scholastic Duals Tournament has been moved from Delaware to Wabash College in Crawfordsville. The IHSWCA has been sending teams to this tournament for several years and are excited to have it in our back yard. Thank you to Wabash College and Coach Brian Anderson for securing the event. Secretary/Treasurer Minch, Vice-President McCormick, and I will be meeting later this month to review our by-laws. I can tell you there will be changes made and you will be updated after this meeting. We will be looking at things that have become antiquated and no longer serve the best interests of the organization. We are also looking at changing some items such as when and how coaches of the year awards will be selected and presented. This summer we became aware the NFHS was looking at weight classes. It appears that a change would go into effect for the 2010-11 season. The NFHS is studying three proposed options and a decision will come at a later date. I am still exploring what role Indiana plays and how much input you as association members and our executive board has in the process. We do have representation with the NFHS. David Cloud of Pendleton Heights sits on the NFHS Board and Tom Miller of Lafayette Jeff is now our region director for the NWCA. I personally believe an adjustment could help improve our sport and still be fair for our student athletes. The ISWA recently held its annual budget meeting. Many items were discussed and hopefully it will lead to improvements to our programs. One significant change will be how Cadet and Junior Duals teams will be selected. A new process has been proposed and is tentatively approved. A few details still need to be worked out, but it will balance being fair with allowing some flexibility in forming competitive teams. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cale Hoover Posted October 14, 2009 Author Share Posted October 14, 2009 10/14/2009 IHSWCA members and the wrestling community: I hope everyone is ready for another exciting season. The annual clinic convenes this week, so the first day of practice is just a few short weeks away. We are excited to have Bill Zadick as our clinician. Mr. Zadick is currently coaching at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. We expect the clinic to be an outstanding event. I am excited about the possibility of the coaches? roundtable. Rarely do we have the opportunity to come together in a group and share ideas and strategies we employ. I look forward to hearing what others are doing to build programs. I encourage you to attend if you have the opportunity. I am sure everyone has noticed the change in the schedule. We decided to give it a try in an attempt to boost attendance. There have been a few complaints, and we have listened to those concerns and will take them into consideration. I do hope that everyone understands that no perfect date exists. We have people who were unable to attend on the traditional dates as well. We will examine the outcome of this clinic and make a decision for next year. We would appreciate your feedback on the matter. After several meetings, the executive board has set the following goals for the year: increase membership and set up a system of regional representatives. The first priority must be to boost membership. Our goal is to have at least one coach from every high school to be a member. In addition, an eye must be focused on our middle school coaches. By 2011 we want one member coach from each middle school. Wrestling officials are also welcome members. We need your help as members for the association to reach these goals. We will address the position of Regional Representatives. We would like to add this position officially to the by-laws. Regional Reps were created to encourage participation. This position needs to be made official and volunteers given a list of expectations. We will be looking for one person to handle each of our sixteen IHSAA individual regionals. The primary responsibilities will be creating a communication link, conducting IHSWCA polls, conducting coach of the year voting for your regional, and attending two meetings with the executive board per year. The executive board will be working to fill these positions by the start of the season. Please contact Trent, JD, or myself if you are interested. Best of luck as you start your season. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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