Indiana State | Archive | February, 2005

Indiana���?�s most complete source of news, statistics, chat rooms, editorial opinion, instruction, and local sports memorabilia and merchandise for Indiana high school athletics is now live, with ultimate completion scheduled for August 2005!

Mission statement

HoosierAuthority.com will cover and promote Indiana high school athletics as not only an exceptional educational tool, but also as an indispensable source of community spirit and pride.

Print side

Nearly the entire free world knows about Hoosier Hysteria. Now there���?�s a website that brings that passion to encompass ALL of Indiana high school sports. For football and girls track & field, for softball and wrestling, for boys soccer and volleyball.

HA.com is a place where sports fans and athletes from all across Indiana can come to get their fix of the one thing that binds them all ���?? the love of their given sport. We���?�ll stay on top of the information that will bring together the fans of high school sports by creating a return to the glory of yesteryear.

Conference standings for â�?��?in-seasonâ�?� sports will be maintained utilizing a statewide network of freelancers, stringers, and the schools themselves. Hoosier Authority.com coverage will include the following sports:

�?· Winter: Boys Basketball, Girls Basketball, Boys Swimming, Girls Swimming, Wrestling

�?· Spring: Baseball, Softball, Girls Tennis, Boys Track & Field, Girls Track & Field

�?· Fall: Boys Cross Country, Girls Cross Country, Football, Boys Soccer, Girls Soccer, Boys Tennis, Volleyball

Broadcast side

Featuring â�?��?Indiana Sportsâ�?��?� Greatest Momentsâ�?� — a four-minute, 30-second weekday radio program voiced by the award-winning Jerry Baker*, on more than 30 Indiana radio stations around the state daily between 6 a.m. and midnight. The details:

�?· Honors the historic contributions of Indiana high school student-athletes, their coaches, schools, parents and fans.

�?· Presents the factual accounts of teams, games, tournaments, seasons, and Indiana cities and towns.

�?· Relives highlights of the closest contests, the outstanding performances by teams and individuals, and the excitement and civic pride of Indiana schools and their supporting communities since the beginning of organized local high school sports.

�?· Recognizes the unique bonds that local high school athletics create within each community and household in the state — think of it as a local radio short-form version with the spirit and joy of â�?��?Breaking Awayâ�?� and â�?��?Hoosiers.â�?�

�?· Why? Because great, legendary moments in Indiana sports arenâ�?��?�t limited to just Bobby Plumpâ�?��?�s last shot for Milan in 1954, or the Ben Davis powerhouse football teams.

�?· Youâ�?��?�ll hear all about the many special times of Indiana sports past and present!

â�?��?Indiana Sportsâ�?��?� Greatest Momentsâ�?� — your shot at always being in the game!

* Member of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, the voice of Indiana high school athletics on television, the original radio voice of the Indiana Pacers and the Indianapolis Colts, former television host of the Indiana Pacers, former WIBC Sports Director â�?��?? and, in another life, the voice of WIFEâ�?��?�s Jack Sunday as well as host of the WIFE â�?��?Good Guysâ�?� Pool Party in the mid-1960s (the highest-rated regularly scheduled radio program in Indianapolis history!).

The players

The online youth sports launch is the brainchild of Executive Director Mike McGraw, a long-time Indiana basketball coach, and CFO Tim Fishburn, owner of Midwest Sports Complex in Indianapolis. E. Shawn Aylsworth, a fellow Hoosier and former high school baseball player, is the HA.com managing editor, with Bobby Green serving as the group���?�s marketing director and Jed Duvall the operations manager.

â�?�¦ and why we should care

After the Civil War, the nation looked west and determined that the states of the Midwest and beyond were the source of future growth and new viewpoints as the American culture began a new chapter. These states included Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. Of the four, Ohio and Indiana sent men — high-ranking Union officers in the war — to become President in the 1870s and â�?��?�80s.

The post-Civil War period north of the Mason-Dixon Line saw not only invention and rapid industrialization but also the organization of athletic clubs and competitions, including baseball, track & field, and, in 1891, basketball. By the 1890s, Indiana — though still largely rural and agrarian — was gaining a reputation as the new wellspring of literary output, with writers such as James Whitcomb Riley, General Lew Wallace, Booth Tarkenton, and Theodore Dreiser.

In 1897, the value of formal education to the advancement and future of Indiana citizens became law as the General Assembly enacted the Compulsory Education Act, which created a system of schools and high schools across the state. And shortly after the creation of high schools came interscholastic athletic competition to productively fill the time between farm chores, church, family life, classroom studies, and sleep.

As each township, city, and town developed its school system, so, too, was developed the seed of organized high school sporting events between the schools. Each small school district became the focal point for civic attention, just as each athletic squad and team became that locality���?�s representatives and ambassadors to the rest of the state.

While times have changed, and an agrarian populace has evolved into a population with broadly diverse avocations, many local schools have consolidated into bigger institutions of learning. But as attention and local passions fragmented, the essence of developing young men and women through practice and trial against peers in organized sports competition remained a point of pride among parents and families, schools and communities. This is why every citizen of Indiana should care. These events and personalities, and their results, are what HoosierAuthority.com will record and celebrate.

Thank you for visiting us and participating in the one remaining civic binder that spiritually holds the state of Indiana together â�?�¦ from Mount Vernon to Angola, from Hammond to Rising Sun.

For more information on HoosierAuthority.com, please contact Jed Duvall at (317) 816-0331 or jduvall@HoosierAuthority.com.