Welcome to the 2013-14 Indiana high school basketball campaign. We hope that your school year is off to a great start and your preseason workouts are in the process of preparing you for the upcoming season.
This is an important year for us in the IBCA, as it is our proposal year to the IIAAA and the IHSAA. As you know, we have distributed a tournament proposal for our coaches to review and ultimately vote on. We need your support in the process. We need all coaches to vote as well as to talk to their athletic directors and principals about our tournament proposal.
There are many areas of concern with our tournament, and this is our chance to be heard and follow the procedures to influence change with the IHSAA. We are making progress in opening the lines of communication with the IHSAA, and the time is now for us to communicate ideas to improve and promote our Indiana basketball tournament. If you have any questions or concerns about the proposal, do not hesitate to contact me or any other committee member.
We encourage everyone to visit the IBCA website as it is loaded with information about All-State and Top 100 selection processes as well as forms for membership and nominations. Also, information about various sponsors that continue to support the IBCA is available on the web site. BSN Sports, Pacers Sports & Entertainment, Best Choice Fieldhouse and many others continue to support our organization year after year.
We also encourage everyone to become members to the IBCA as well as the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. These two organizations continue to do things that enhance our game and honor those who have impacted the great tradition of Indiana high school basketball. We also encourage all coaches to participate in the Subway Player of the Week program by sending nominations each week to Pat McKee. Subway has been a generous sponsor with this program as well as our clinic meal in the past.
The IBCA again continues to take on more projects and honor more players in our state. This past summer we hosted the National Rising Senior Event at Ben Davis. We want to thank our Junior All-Star coaches – Brent Chitty, Ryan Bales and Brad Dickey – for their work with Team Indiana. We once again will be hosting this event in July 2014 and adding girls’ teams for 2014.
The Indiana-Kentucky All-Star Series is blossoming once again with the IBCA leadership. We have added Junior All-Star games with Kentucky and expanded the All-Star Shootout to invite more teams to experience this great traditional rivalry. A big thanks to Coach Witty, Charlie Hall and Pat McKee with their efforts in regard to the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star Series. We hope you all can experience our events in this summer!
Our challenges each year become more difficult with the growth of AAU, individualized workout facilities, exposure events, etc. While each of these are providing more opportunities for our players, you know and I know the importance of Indiana high school basketball and the work with the high school coach is at the core of what we do. It is up to us to continue to fight to make our programs important to our student-athletes and communities. We applaud the job that you do and encourage you to keep making a difference in the lives of your players. Your impact, influence and life-lessons as a result of your leadership will continue to reach them far after their playing days are over. Do not forget that!
Finally, we wish you the best this upcoming season and encourage you to participate and vote on our proposal, so we can make a difference with the IHSAA in regards to “our” game and tournament! It has been a pleasure serving as your president of the IBCA. Remember your District Representatives and Executive Board are here to serve you; do not hesitate to contact us with ideas or concerns that can help our organization grow.
-- Chris Benedict
