South Putnam's Troy Burgess will coach South All-Stars in WVFCA game

Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association announced Wednesday a new format for their annual All-Star game played each year in June. This was brought about due to the continued growth of the association.

First, a little history about the Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association. The WFVCA formed in January 2003 with 22 schools committed to the organization. Original activities were limited to a coach's clinic, a 7-on-7 tournament and the annual All-Star Game. Since that time the association has grown to 35 schools including three more schools coming in this year (North Daviess, Charleston and Tri-County) and activities now include coach's clinics, a recruiting fair, skill camps, tournaments and the annual All-Star game.

With this growth as well as reviewing the current format of the All-Star Game being a North-South divisional set-up, the coaches at their annual meeting in December voted to change the format for the make-up of the teams.

The primary goal of this change is to make each year's game totally stands on its own and we wanted to eliminate the ongoing record of north vs. south. Starting in 2012 the teams will be drafted by the two head coaches elected by their peers at the annual meeting.

Each coach elected will have their own team and then a coin toss took place to determine picking order. The only criteria in the selection process is that Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South had to be on opposite sides.

This year, Steve Weber from Linton-Stockton and Troy Burgess from South Putnam were elected as "Coaches of the Year" and will serve as the two head coaches in the game. Coach Burgess will head the Black Division and coach Weber will head the Gold Division.

Joining Burgess on the Black Team will be South Putnam's Rob Gibson, Wade Custis and Cody Heller; Greencastle's Levi App and Ryan Battin and Cloverdale's Ethan Atwood.

Across the field will be North Putnam's Hunter Logan, Jake Smerage, Kolten Everts, Tyler Shorter and Nate Bryan will play for the Gold Team.

The game is scheduled this year for Saturday, June 23 at ISU Memorial Stadium. The annual All-Star banquet will be held at Hulman Center of Friday, June 22. Practice will start on Sunday June 17.