Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association

Fall Meeting - November 21, 2009

The meeting was held in the Big Ten Room at Carver Hawkeye arena. It was called to order at 8:30 by Executive Director Lee Toole. The minutes from the last meeting in April in Cedar Rapids, which were published in the newsletter as discussed. Mike Pauly motioned to approve. 2nd by Dave Rock. Minutes were accepted.

Lee went over the financial report. Balances in bank accounts are healthy. Lee reported that The All-Star Series and the Coaches Clinic made a nice profit last year. Charlie Stumpff motioned to approve. 2nd by Dave Rock. The financial report was accepted.

Report from the Officers and Committees:

Lee reported that the All-Star series was outstanding. Many thanks to the All-Star committee headed up by Dan Pomeroy and John Waddle and the Chamber of Commerce from the Carroll.

Roger Hoel gave the Hall of Fame Committee Report. The following will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cedar Rapids at the Banquet: Bill Burbach, a former player from Dubuque, Milo Hamilton, as a contributor from Fairfield, Harley Schieffer, a former coach from Clarinda, Joe McFarland, a former coach from Norwalk, John Lewis, a coach from Cedar Rapids, John Waddle, a coach from Coon Rapids, and Bill Boyd, an umpire from New Hampton. Tom Souhrada motioned to approve. 2nd by Brett Hoyer. Nominees were accepted.

The All-District Committee Report was given by Randy Wee and John Waddle. Because there has been some shifting of schools between 3A and 2A they are looking into restructuring districts to balance the number of teams. They are reviewing the all-district positions to see if it should be DH/utility player.

The Awards Committee Report was given by Lee Toole in place of Phil Katz who was not able to attend. Phil is interested in improving the Hall of Fame award. He would like to see the individual’s picture and bio on the trophy. Since the trophies are made in Cedar Rapids this makes for easy delivery of trophies to the banquet.

Dan Pomeroy gave the All-Star Committee Report. The people from Carroll did an outstanding job with the All-Star Series. The wine tour was a great idea and it allowed parents, coaches, and staff members to mingle. Tom Souhrada’s idea of having a photographer take pictures during the games and show them at the banquet proved to be very good. The parents could buy the CD of pictures; many hits were reported on the photographer’s web-site. Tweaking the time and order of the games was a sound idea. It was discussed if the opening day games should be changed to have small west vs. large west play first when the series was hosted in the western part of the state. This would allow players and parents from the eastern teams more time to travel to the site. John Waddle brought up an idea to have 9 inning games on Thursday and Friday to allow more players to get into the games in case of rain later in the week.

Mike Pauly gave the Umpires Committee Report. Mike reported that he has lined up most of the speakers for the 2010 Umpiring Clinic. Several umpires who were nominated for District Umpire of the Year were not members of the organization or did not return their biographical information. Mike is looking for email addresses of umpires throughout the state. If conference commissioners through out the major conferences could supply him with names, addresses, and email addresses of umpires he could get more umpires involved with the association. The Umpires Committee recommended Bill Boyd to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010. They also voted to name the Umpire of the Year award after the late Brent Prange, a long-time member of the IHSBCA and a member of the Hall of Fame. Dave Middleton motioned to accept. 2nd by Jerry Roling. Motion was accepted.

The Lanny Peterson Award Report was given by Brett Hoyer. Chad Piersma from Sioux City North the Lanny Peterson Award for the 2009 season. He will be attending Dartmouth.

The Academic All-State Team Report was given by John Waddle. It was brought up if the dead line for the nominations for All State Academic Award could be moved up. If that was the case the coaches could not put down the player’s post-season awards. The form to turn in has been fined tuned over the years and is weighted towards an academic award. A player does not need to be present at the All-Star Series to win the Lanny Peterson Award.

Randy Wee gave the State Rating Poll Committee Report. He would like an email distribution list to help solicit more responses from coaches. Randy needs more coaches on the Rating Poll Committee to keep in touch with him on a weekly basis to help get a more accurate picture of how teams are doing around the state. This was the committee’s first attempt to attach win/loss records to the poll. Randy reported it was difficult to get accurate records.

The Membership Committee Report was given by Dave Middleton. Membership is always down at this time of the year but it picks up around the time of the annual clinic. He would like to see more umpires join the association. Again, there is a need for the conference commissioner of officials to help out with mailing addresses.

Steve Hanson gave the Clinic Survey/Mini Clinic Report. Over the past month his committee has developed a list of topics and secured Iowa High School coaches to speak at the mini clinic this year. This is a new and exciting addition to the clinic. It will be high school coaches talking about high school issues. Outlines from the speakers will be provided, audio visual aids will be encouraged, and a form will be provided to those who would like to speak in the future. Steve has developed a form to evaluate all of the speakers at the clinic. The forms can be turned before the coach’s leave. This will help to further develop a list of qualified speakers for the future.

The IHSAA Advisory Committee Report was given by Steve Hanson. There will be several rule changes in the upcoming years. In 2010, teams can expand their dugout towards the out, but both dugouts must be expanded equally. The lead runner will be declared out if a collision occurs between the fielder and runner or fielder and coach on a pop foul. Assistant coaches who leave the dugout or coaches box to dispute a judgment call by an umpire will be restricted to the dugout for the remainder of the game along with, possibly, the head coach. If severe enough, there may be ejections. In 2012 all bats must meet the new Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution (BBCOR) performance standard. No more BESR. There were 73 ejections this past season; up 17 from the year before. The state also discussed have the teams that travel the farthest be allowed to play the 2 PM and 6 PM games at the state tourney to allow more time for travel. More centrally located teams would play the noon and 8 PM games. After the first round the pre-tourney seeding would take over. The disadvantage of this proposal would be scouting. A team playing at 2 PM may have their next round opponent be playing at 8 PM. This proposal will go to the Board in the spring.

Steve also gave the updated report on seeding of 4A schools. Seeding has gone well in spite of the fact that 20% of the coaches did not comply with the reporting dates for scores. It will be proposed to be permanent in the spring meeting at the Board of Control. They have set the following guidelines to determine home field. The higher seed will have host the game if they have lights. If the higher seeded team does not have lights they will travel to the lower seeded team unless it can find a lighted field that doesn’t add travel time. If two teams from the same community play and neither have lights then the higher seeded team will host a 5 PM game. Discussion of the higher seeded team being the home team was tabled because they still flip a coin for home team once you get to Des Moines. Dave Rock reported that seeding for 3A will start in 2011 with a 2 year experimental period.

The IHSAA Sports Report was given by Lee Toole. There was discussion on the impact of select teams on Iowa High School teams. How can IHSAA promote high school sports to get more participation? They thought by running commercials during the state tournament and promoting the positives would help.

Lee reported that he received many positive letters and emails from the all-star series. The sites for the All-Star Series in the future have not been finalized. Council Bluffs and Cedar Rapids will host the next two series, but it hasn’t been determined which year they will host. Davenport will host the 2012 series.

New Business: The following have been selected for awards at the 2010 clinic Awards Banquet:

Bill and Sherry Freese Contributors Award - Jim Gossett and Barry Bruner (Carroll)
IHSBCA President's Award - Tom and Linda Souhrada (Davenport)
Harold "Pinky" Primrose Award - Dr. Bradley Hammer (Des Moines)

The next meeting will be on January 28th, 2010 in the Marriott Hotel in Cedar Rapids.

Respectfully submitted by Jay Ryan