posted Jun 14th, 2007 - John Hoover's NSL Profile has not been updated ever since the Golden Knights switched priority from 8-way to 4-way. His currently posted profile story does not even include one of the peaks in his career, the 4-way gold medals at the USPA Nationals 2002. It also does not mention his Army service in Afghanistan.

The NSL Profile was posted when the Golden Knights put John Hoover in charge to form a new 4-way line-up for the Army, it was the end of the 2000 season. The profile story still mentions that he recruited Eric Heinsheimer (Tail), Kurt Isenberger (Center Outside) and Chris Talbert (Center Inside).

Other NSL News stories followed up several times and covered the same Golden Knights line-up on their way to the silver medals at the World Meet 2003 in France. John Hoover was always a major contributor to the NSL News stories. However, this line-up discontinued after its last competition at the USPA Nationals 2003 in Lake Wales.

John Hoover was still in charge to recruit a new line-up for the next two years. Brooks Weiner, Brian Krause and Matt Davidson joined the new Army team, Kurt Isenbarger was the alternate, Larry Miller filmed the team. The 2004 season was a building year for this line-up.

The 1st place at the USPA Nationals 2005 was the main goal, and John Hoover's Army team finished as close to this goal as it might be possible. The jump-off for the gold medals between DeLand Fire and the Golden Knights in Perris made it into the history book of Formation Skydiving competition, and the NSL News brought this drama live to the NSL News audience.

The 2nd place in 2005 was also the end of John Hoover's responsibility as the team captain of the Golden Knights. The NSL News interviewed the new team captain, Brian "BK" Krause, in October 2005, who provided information of the Golden Knights future after the USPA Nationals 2005:

"John Hoover has left the team to go back to Special Forces, and Brooks Weiner will return to Special Forces in January. During the summer, both of them came down on orders to return to their Special Forces groups in order to support the war on terrorism. If we would have won the Nationals, those orders could have possibly been delayed until after the World Meet 2006. John has contributed a great deal to the Golden Knights and the skydiving community over the last 10 years and will be missed."

John Hoover was deployed to Afghanistan, as his former teammate Matt Davidson explained in January 2006, while he and Brian Krause recruited the new line-up for the 2006 season with Sean Sweeney and Angela Nichols:

"John Hoover was awarded the prestigious honor of Golden Knight of the Year, an honor that all current team members vote on yearly. The award was announced at this year's GK reunion in front of more than 300 former and current Golden Knights and their guests. Some former members included those from the original team in 1959. John was unable to attend as he is serving his country in Afghanistan. I let him know via email, and he said that he was a little choked up."

The 2006 season did not turn out for the Golden Knights as it was originally planned. The NSL News story on 17 October 2006 provided the details of the difficulties for the original 2006 line-up. The same story also broke the news that Eric Heinsheimer and Kurt Isenbarger would be back in action for the USPA Nationals 2006 and also for the next two years.

Brian Krause (Point), Kurt Isenbarger (Center Outside), Matt Davidson (Center Inside), Eric Heinsheimer (Tail) and Larry Miller (Camera) competed at the USPA Nationals 2006 (19.6) and made serious plans for the 2007 season.

The new line-up had a great start into the 2007 season with a 22.2 average at the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2007. However, new difficulties interrupted the flow of the Golden Knights of 2007. Matt Davidson injured his foot and had to take a break for a few weeks, as the NSL News reported earlier. Sean Sweeney filled his slot at the April meet of the Carolina Skydiving League.

It got even worse for the Army team. Eric Heinsheimer injured his neck the day prior to the same CASL April meet. He still made it through the first two rounds and then had to stop. It was a very unfortunate situation for the highly motivated Army line-up of world-class 4-way competitors and good friends when the injury turned out be more serious than expected.

However, the Golden Knights did not give up and looked for solutions. They found a more than satisfying way how to fill Eric Heinsheimer's slot. The NSL News story on May 25 broke the news that John Hoover was back to help out. This means that his 4-way career with the Golden Knights continues for now, and his NSL Profile needs a serious update.

John Hoover is in a different slot for the first time in his 4-way career. He used to fly the Point position of the front piece. He has now taken the Center Inside position of the rear piece, while Matt Davidson is back to the Tail slot that he used to fly in 2004 and 2005.

The line-up with John Hoover had to make adjustments of the plans for the 2007 season after Eric Heinsheimer's injury. However, the new team already attended the May meet and posted a 19.8 average with the new rear piece. It is still the goal of the Golden Knights to attend as many meets as possible. Only the trip to the Malevsky Cup 2007 in Russia was taken off the meet agenda so far. John Hoover is only filling the slot for Eric Heinsheimer at the moment. It has not been decided yet whether he will be able to stay with the team or not. Eric Heinsheimer might even recover quickly and come back sooner than expected.

John Hoover will surely become familiar with the new slot very quickly. The upcoming meet weekend includes the June meet of the Carolina Skydiving League, which was on the Golden Knights schedule. The other US top contenders expect the Golden Knights to be back in contention very soon with this world-class line-up.

The 19.8 average of the May meet was probably the last time that the Golden Knights posted an average below the 20.0 mark. However, the draw of this weekend's 6-round competition will still be a factor on the way to a higher scoring average. The ten rounds at the Paraclete XP Money Meet 2007 on July 28/29 in Raeford will finally show where this Golden Knights line-up stands a few months before the USPA Nationals 2007.