IHSAA Names 2009 Cage Hall of Fame
The Iowa High School Athletic Association has announced several of the Award Winners at next week’s Boys’ State Basketball Tournament.
An Orient-Macksburg graduate is among the 2009 Hall of Fame class which will honored Saturday night at the halftime of the Class 4A Championship and the News Media award winners plus the Officials’ Hall of Fame.
The News Media Winners will be recognized at the halftime of the Class 1A game on Friday and the Officials will be honored at the intermission of the Class 2A title game on Friday.
Carl Cochran, longtime Tri-Center, Neola coach, is among the inductees.
An all-conference football and basketball player at Orient-Macksburg, Mr. Cochran graduated from Peru State College and started his career in education at Elk Horn-Kimballton. I
In 1974 he moved to Tri-Center as an assistant coach and took over the varsity program the following year. He posted a 483-259 mark in 33 seasons with the Trojans, increasing his career win total to 551 — 12th best all-time. His teams won 14 conference titles and five times he brought teams to the State Tournament with a second place finish in 1986 and fourth in 2007.
In each of the five appearances the team that defeated the Trojans was either state champion or runner-up. He won several district and state coach-of-the-year honors and coached in two IBCA all-star games. In 2006 he was a finalist for National Coach-of-the-Year. He retired at the end of last season and already has 15 former players who are now coaches. He mentored three all-state players including his son Cary, Iowa’s number two all-time scorer (2,650 points).
