Up the creek without a paddle.

On the 24th, and 25th I had the pleasure of being the head official at Mill Creeks up the creek JV tournament. There were over 400 wrestlers in the tournament. We officiated from 5pm till after 11:30 on Tuesday, and started back up at 9:00am on Wednesday. I know how hard that is on wrestlers, parents and coaches, but let me tell you without a little aleve I might not have made it through. Honestly, you would think that walking around on a soft wrestling mat would feel great, but it really makes your feet sore. The knees and legs take a beating also. My point is an old man like me(even though a run about 6 miles a week) still gets mighty sore officiating a long tournament. Unlike a lot of other activities, my body does not seem to be adjusting and developing a tolerance, or different level of conditioning. Oh well it is probably just old age creeping in at a higher rate.

Besides soreness, maintaining a high level of concentration late into the night with matches constantly coming your way is a difficult task. I find it a little easier to handle than the soreness.

On to the wrestling observations. When I coached in High School I did not have enough wrestlers or coaches to run a JV program. I have very little experience with High School JV. I had 152-160 pounders on my mat all weekend, and the physical development was evident. The wrestling technique was far behind their physical development. I Feel confident I could beat these kids on technique, but would be scared to let one of them get a hold of me. With time, all of the young men who competed this weekend can become strong competitors, and there were a number there that could compete successfully at the Varsity level, and were just one wrestle-off from getting there.

One of the most exciting matches of the day ended up looking like a super32 finals match. There was only one match going on, and everyone surrounded the mat, and the entire crowd in the bleachers was watching. I was not officiating the match, and a controversial call was made in overtime. An extremely well versed coach was arguing a misapplication of the rule, so as head official, I stepped in to help sort things out. As I was approaching the discussion, I realise that the official had called a takedown in overtime. The wrestler had gotten behind and the opposing wrestler's hand had touched the ground. I sent the coaches to the side so that I could talk to the official at the table. 4 other officials who saw the situation joined us. I asked the official one important question. I asked, "When his hand touched the mat do you think he bore weight on it"? After a short pause he said no. We discussed the rule briefly, and he understood that he had a misapplication of the rule. One of the other officials said, well you could have called him for fleeing the mat. I left it up to the mat official to make the right call. He took back the takedown, and let the wrestlers continue wrestling. It went all the way to the final tie breaker to determine the winner, and was quite an exciting match.