This is a very stimulating time for our staff, board and the wrestling community as our Board of Governors approved the meticulous work of our selection committees in choosing the Class of 2024 to be enshrined during Honors Weekend May 30 to June 1 at your National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In fact, it is a good time to mark your calendar and plan to make the trip to Stillwater to help us celebrate our 47th class of inductees.

Throughout the COVID pandemic and its aftermath, we had to become more adept, adopting new plans and improving our programs and services across our entire network at the Dan Gable Museum, State Chapters and in Stillwater. Examples include the Dual Classic high school tournament, An Evening with Dan Gable featuring the Dual Premiere Series, and the Women In Wrestling exhibit we unveiled this past June.

To be sure, the dedicated staff we employ are always exploring and listening to your input on new special event practices to attract more guests and produce a quality experience for those who attend our state and national induction ceremonies and our state-of-the-art museums. We also continue to improve programming offered on our website and social media.

In addition to the new programs we have incorporated over the past 12 months, we have experienced some transitions with our staff, hiring and training Nicole Voinovich as our new bookkeeper and Lara Horinek as office manager. We also engaged the consulting services of Susy Rein, who is the wife of Distinguished Member Andy Rein and president of Strategically Engaged, to facilitate the organization’s Power Beyond Endowment Campaign and other strategic initiatives. These new employees provide us with the opportunity to streamline our operational practices and procedures so that we can better serve you and our sport’s affiliate members.

You will also find in this Journal an announcement about new Board of Governors member Audrey Pang whose term began in October. In addition to onboarding Audrey, our board approved a motion to accept Melody and Ron Domanico as new board members whose terms will begin in 2024. We are grateful to these leaders who have so willingly committed to volunteering their time. We would not be able to have such a strong impact on our sport without our board’s leadership at the national and state levels.

I’d also like to extend my gratitude to our Dan Gable Museum Director Jim Miller and State Chapter Director Krista Graff for the leadership they provide in engaging all levels of the sport and thus helping reach a wider audience of Americans with the values and benefits of this great sport. It takes all of us pulling in the same direction to achieve our mission and inspire future generations about how our sport transforms lives and betters our society. If you have not joined us, please think about responding to our fall appeal on page 3 of this journal.

When I attend one of our induction ceremonies, I am often reminded of how success breeds success by virtue of those who show up in support of an honoree. Most of the guests that attend these events are alumni of our sport, family members or friends of an inductee. There are also community and economic sector leaders who have either supervised an inductee along the way or charted their career paths at the same time. Their attendance reinforces the importance of what this sport means to our communities through the work of those we honor. Another important takeaway from these induction ceremonies is the family-like culture personified in the sport of wrestling. What better image could we possibly want to perpetuate?