2019 Draft Picks Announced

Written by Jacke Finne
Feb. 26, 2019
Commissioners, Grady Hadar and Jake Fine, have announced the Draft order for the opening season for the Indianapolis Wiffleball League. The Nighthawks have the edge over the other teams with the first pick of the 2019 draft. After the Nighthawks, the Ironmen and the Crusaders come up next with the second and third pick, respectively. Finally, the Hillcats round out the first round with the fourth pick. The remainder of the draft will go in a snake-like fashion.

Reportedly, the current plan for the league that the commissioners and the team captains went over during the meeting a weekend ago is that all of the recruited players will be invited to a combine of sorts. On back-to-back weekends, the players will have the chance to make their case to get picked in the opening round of the 2019 IWL Draft in a tryout-like event.

"As of now, we believe that we will be holding a weekend, followed by another weekend the week after, of pickup games," IWL Commissioner Jake Fine said. "The Sunday night of the second weekend is when we will have our draft, and the subsequent weekends are when we will have something similar to Spring Training. We have no dates set in stone quite yet, but the other captains and I are looking to get a schedule out soon."

In other news, as you may have already known, the commissioners and the captains created the IWL Rulebook for the 2019 season during the meeting a weekend ago. "It was an extremely productive meeting," Fine reported. "We were able to... do stuff." 

2019 Off-season Under Way After Founding Teams Announced

Written by Jacke Finne
Feb. 7, 2019
Both commissioners, Grady Hadar and Jake Fine, announced through the Instagram page that the 2019 season will consist of four teams  the Circle City Crusaders, the Hoosier State Hillcats, the Indy Ironmen, and the Naptown Nighthawks. All named after nicknames or names related to the city of Indianapolis and the state of Indiana, the teams will be captained by Connor Whaley, Grady Hadar, Jake Fine, and Nate Killeen, respectively.

With the introduction of these four teams, we expect to have the structure of the regular season and the postseason, and many other necessities, such as the rulebook, that a well-organized league should have. An inside source has reported that the commissioners and the remaining captains are thinking of having an 18-game season, with each team playing the other three teams in two separate series of three games, for a total of six games against every other team. Additionally, the source has reported that the playoffs will have all four teams in the postseason. Supposedly, the teams will play a best-of-3 series in the semi-finals and a best-of-5 series in the finals, but the source has confirmed that nothing is confirmed quite yet. The source has also confirmed that the commissioners and the captains are looking to schedule a meeting to go over these sort of important regulations within the next couple of weeks.

That being said, even with no rosters whatsoever and no telling for how each team will fare, I have created the Way-Too-Early Power Rankings – the first of its kind for Indianapolis Wiffleball History.

  1. Hoosier State Hillcats – The Hoosier State Hillcats look to be one of the frontrunners in the IWL. As aforementioned, it's way too early to tell just how good a team is without the team having any players, but Grady Hadar is an extremely solid baseball player, which should translate well to the wiffleball field.
  2. Circle City Crusaders – The Circle City Crusaders, led by captain Connor Whaley, is a team that can definitely have a great inaugural year if he is able to find some good players and fill up his roster with talent. Also a baseball player, Whaley should be able to take his knowledge of the baseball game to the wiffleball field.
  3. Naptown Nighthawks – The Naptown Nighthawks, although in third, could also be a very good team. Nate Killeen is the leader for the Nighthawks and Killeen is an athletic player that can get all up in your business if you mess with him. Picking up some consistent players in the IWL Draft can definitely help out the Nighthawks.
  4. Indy Ironmen – The Indy Ironmen, even with arguably the best name, doesn't look like a team that can win it all and produce some high-quality wins, especially when it comes down late in the season. Captain Jake Fine is not a baseball player, who last played in the second grade. Even though he did gain runners-up honors back in 2012 with the Orioles in the Broad Ripple Little League, he doesn't seem like he will be able to lead a team to a great season.
That wraps up the very first article on the Indianapolis Wiffleball League history. Along with Grayson Henderson, I will be writing most articles on the IWL, so be prepared to read more of this sort of writing. As I reported, the commissioners and the captains are looking to meet quite soon to set down the regulations for the league, so stay tuned to more information when that meeting is over.