One more match.

Dixie Nationals seemed better this year. It seemed to get done earlier, and be run a little more efficiently. As I closed out the matches on two of the mats we were assigned to, Bud kept comming around saying don't leave yet, there is just one more match. I really enjoyed the group of volunteers working mat 5 (shout out to Breman). All of the table workers did a great job.
I was on a 4 on three rotation. That means we had 4 different officials working three mats in my group. We had 10 and under, and 12 and under age groups. These are fun age groups because there are some high level wrestlers, and tough kids in almost every match. I officiated a California kid in the 12 an under group that had the best head position takedowns I have ever seen. He would get a little hand control, a superior head position, and before the other wrestler could do anything about it, he was behind them. He got no less than 7 takedowns every time I saw him wrestle.
There were plenty of highly emotional coaches, and parents acting kind of nutty on the mats. I tried my best to let everyone who followed proper protocol know how much I appreciated it. I now I missed Jeff Bedard, so Jeff you did a good job at the table stating your case, and followed protocol well. You made it sound like a request, and even if you did not agree with me you kept a professional attitude at the table. If you bother to read this, just know I appreciate it.
I just could not leave Dixie without pitching in and helping the best behind the scenes man in Georgia wrestling roll up some mats. Danny, I know I didn't help much, but where else are you going to find a ref. that will help roll a mat. Couldn't just watch Tobby, Walter, and Jerrimiah roll alone.
For those of you that did not know it, there was also a roller tournament today. Dixie proved to be king with better numbers, better competitors, and better southern hospitality.
I am sore, but I still wish I was working tomorrow. I am going to Winder to watch the George Thompson. That tournament is on the rise, and on it's way back to what it used to be.

Minion Duals

Lots of excitement today at the World Congress center. The parents and coaches were inches away from the mat. I was working the elementary school division and for the most part it was uneventful. I did have a controversial locked hands call and ended up with a parent swearing at me. i made him leave the area, and enforced an unsportsmanlike penalty. He was able to apologize latter, but I really did not take it personally. The call made no difference in the outcome of the match, but the coaches did not want to let it go. they asked for the head official, so I went and got him. I let them present their argument then I told him what I saw. The discussion was inconclusive.
The best match of that dual was a last second take down giving one of the boys a one point victory. The crowd was extremely loud but I was able to hear my bopper counting down as well as the buzzer go off. the one coach was complaining about the bopper when I informed him that I heard the buzzer. He still was not very happy.
I ended up officiating at least part of 5 different duals with one being in the Middle School division. I had fun, and was still able to watch a well fought middle school final.
I will be working Dixie Nationals Monday. I am looking forward to a long day of officiating with some scrappy matches.

Limmited space.

I was fortunate during the first half of the season to get a good number of bookings (Assignments to officiate), I know some of the officials got very few, and I had several. Unfortunately it is coming back to haunt me in the second half of the schedule. I am very excited about some of the bookings I have. I will be officiating the Minion Duals, and Dixie Nationals in a few days. It is exciting to watch some of the little guys go out throwing high level techniques. I am also scheduled to officiate the King of the Hill Tournament. This is a premier JV event that I have never attended. I know plenty of top level Georgia wrestlers come out of this event. I will also be officiating a youth tournament at Peachtree Ridge, and a Dual at Oglethorpe. I was hoping to officiate an area dual tournament, but my association MAWOA has so many quality officials that I will have to settle for watching from the stands.
If I could get the bookings I would work twice a week plus Friday and Saturday, but there just isn't that many assignments. I love wrestling, and officiating is definitely the best seat in the house. I am willing to take the abuse people dish out in order to get that close to the action.
I have been working with Pete Frits Sr. on some details for State Duals, and have volunteered with Ron Domanico to help run weigh-ins at State Duals to help defray the costs associated with running the tournament. I will be in Macon and between what ever I will be doing to help Pete, and Ron I am looking forward to getting a close up look at some of that action.
I happen to be a girl's soccer coach with the Apalachee program. I am the assistant. I help with Varsity, and run the JV program. I go watch my girls play in the off season when I am not at a wrestling event(I went to watch them play indoor last night). My Head coach is very understanding of my involvement in wrestling, and doesn't get on me if I miss a little here and there at the beginning of the season to be involved with wrestling. The bad news is with my limited bookings I will have to be at preseason conditioning as soon as school gets back. I love coaching the girls, but man is it cold in January, and February. I would much prefer a hot sweaty wrestling room.

ABC

Worked at Lambert this morning for a JV event. They had 4 teams, and split up the kids by weight classes into 3 man groups. A wrestled B in the first round, A wrestled C in the second round, and B wrestled C in the third round. We had two mats with two officials, and it ran smooth as silk. The guy in charge of the music did a great job of playing fun music in between rounds, but I wish it was playing during the entire event. I really liked it when he played lets all go to the lobby. Most of the wrestlers were fairly inexperienced, but wrestled with a lot of passion. There were some tough kids there who just have not broken the Varsity line-up yet.
I talked with the other official about events we had called recently, and what kinds of things we have encountered. He said that an official had given him some advice on being more vocal in his matches especially on stalling calls. I think that is excellent advice. If a wrestler knows that you are calling him for stalling, he should quickly change the way he is wrestling in order to prevent another stalling call.
A situation that occurred a couple of times today forced me to award points. Both wrestlers were in a scramble, and one wrestler is getting in a bad position. The coach of the wrestler getting in the bad position tells him to get out of bounds, and he does it. There is no question that the wrestler is intentionally going out of the wrestling area, which is a technical violation. If the coach had not been telling him to get out of bounds, it would have been a judgment call. I would have had to guess weather or not the wrestler had gone out of bounds intentionally. BIG HINT COACHES, DON'T TELL YOUR WRESTLERS TO GO OUT OF BOUNDS UNLESS THEY ARE ON THEIR BACKS.
The day was short, but enjoyable. If it wasn't for traffic on the way home I would not have even felt like I had worked. My next assignment is Dixie Nationals. I will be working both the Duals, and the individual championship. I am looking forward to seeing some technical wrestling from some of the young guys. Don't think for a second that I will not be at the Kyle Maynard Duals. I plan on being there all day Wednesday. Please come by and say hi.

Viscious attacks.

I volunteered to officiate a youth event today. It was kind of a glorified inter squad practice with no medals, and no real brackets. I think that they were originally going to have no scores, but they decided to keep score just on the clock, not on paper. The organizer had to pay gym rental, and sanctioned the tournament with USA so he charged a nominal fee for the wrestlers, and a small gate fee. It was set up with kids broken into weight classes to wrestle 4-5 man round robin groups. A great idea to get more wrestling in on a Sunday.
Now the fun stuff. I intentionally found out which mat would have the youngest age group. I claimed that mat, and the next thing you know I get a D1 college wrestler running my table for me (Hint, he was wearing a VT shirt). Half of the kids on my mat were related to, or coached by a Hennebaul. I was on a split mat and right next to me was the next age group up. I was calling the matches like I would any other match for the most part, except I was forcing them into correct starting positions instead of just giving them cautions. I called all of the illegal holds, and most of the technical violations. I found out latter that the official next to me was letting most of it go, so the guys who had kids on both mats thought I was being to strict, and he was missing all of the calls. After the first round Jerry Hennebaul asked me to tell the kids what they were doing wrong, so I took the time to tell the kids specifically what they were doing wrong. I think Jerry or Walt went to talk to Bud, because he came over and said don't take it so seriously.
The kids were cracking me up. This event was designed with the beginner in mind, but there were some pretty good wrestlers there. As with some middle school wrestlers, youth wrestlers look at a wrestling match as what I truly believe it to be(a fight with some rules thrown in). They were growling, and groaning, pinching, head butting, choking, it was awesome. I was taking kids hands off of mouths, eyes, and unwrapping some choke holds.
I think that the kids at the event got better for having been there, and I was highly entertained. I am glad I went. I got a chance to congratulate a High School division Gwinnett County Champion. Saw my favorite wrestling family, and got my neck hugged by all the girls, and saw some kids that I know will be top tear wrestlers in the near future.

Young guns

I had a dual event today at Oconee. There were four mats, and four referees. The other three referees were young collage age guys. Stranger than that is the fact that I had coached two of them in freestyle, and had been a supporter of the other one all through High School. One of them officiated last year, and I had a lot of confidence in him. He overslept, and was late. I had not seen the other two officiate, but I was going to have to start in case we were going to have to cover for the other official. Fortunately he was less than 15 minutes late so it was not a huge issue.
I got the opportunity to watch all of them officiate some, and they were doing a fine job, in a highly confrontational atmosphere. As I watched the official on mat two, he walked over between matches to inform me that he had warned the coach in the far corner. The funny part is, as the dual was going on the same coach walked past me and said hey this official is doing a good job. I guess the coach had been testing his limits, and found them.
As head official i was called over to mat one by another coach. There was a question about a figure four on the head being a technical violation from neutral, and weather or not it should be a delayed call. I stated that a figure four on the head is a technical violation, but there would be a delay in order for the wrestler who's head was trapped to get the opportunity to score. The strange part is, the coach asking for the conference had the wrestler performing the figure four, so he could not score anyway. Latter on the same mat the coach had a problem with another call the official had made. I had seen the action in question, but was on the back side of what the referee saw. He called one point on a technical violation. It was a headlock situation without an arm. The wrestler with the head, had his hand clamped on his own thigh trapping the head. In the officials opinion it was an illegal head lock. I asked the official what he had seen, and he described it to me, and in his opinion it was illegal. I agreed with him, and reminded him of the proper signal for illegal holds since it was not a technical violation.
I called the final match. It was a big snoozer with a lot of low scoring matches. Many of the wrestlers were being overpowered from the top, but the top wrestlers were not able to turn the bottom wrestlers. There were several close matches that just did not have a lot of action. I had my share of stalling calls, technical violations for fleeing a hold, and technical violations for forcing a wrestler out of the wrestling area, but in the long run it was not a close team score.
I was the last match of the day, and my feet are sore. I am volunteering my time Sunday at Mountain view for a youth event. I am looking forward to the shift to youth and crazy enthusiastic youth parents.

Passionate crowd

I was at Loganville tonight. It was Senior night so I guess they needed a senior age referee. There were two other experienced officials there, so I took the JV mat. Loganville, Winder-Barrow, Salem, and Tucker were in attendance. After about 22 matches I was done. There were two Varsity duals left, and the other officials left them for me. The first dual had two of the visiting teams competing against each other, and yet there was some exuberant crowd noise. It made the dual much more interesting. In the second dual it was the home team against one of the visiting teams. The crowd was even better. It was a very competitive dual with plenty of passion from both the crowd, and the wrestlers. There were a couple of times when I should have possibly called unsportsmanlike on a couple of wrestlers, but I warned them on this occasion. There were several potentially dangerous situations that became illegal due to the wrestlers not stopping on my whistle, or when I was pulling them apart to protect the wrestler in danger. Even though some of the wrestlers had some hard feelings after their matches, at the end good sportsmanship was expressed by all.


It was fun to have a passionate crowd with no need to have any ejections, and not feeling the need to be escorted out of the building.

This Saturday I will be between some very demonstrative coaches as the head official. I am looking forward to the challenge. I will be at Oconee County High School.

Getting the bat off my shoulder.

Sometimes making the right call in a wrestling match is like trying to hit a fast ball. You have to make your decision quickly, and make sure you actually hit the ball. I think I had a couple of strikes today at Morgan County.
We were using assistant referees as requested by the tournament director. We do not get a lot of opportunity to practice officiating with assistants because most people just don't want to pay the extra fee associated with it, but Coach Robbins wanted to have extra eyes on every match so for the conso semis, and the finals we used assistants. On to the hits, and misses.
Hits
In one match the referee was on the far side, and I had an opposing angle. One of the wrestlers through an illegal headlock and I was able to see it from my position, and let the referee know. He negated the takedown he had awarded and gave the other wrestler a point for the illegal hold. There was another match that a wrestler was forcing his opponent off the mat every time he stood up. After the third occurrence I told the referee what I was seeing, and on the fourth, fifth, and sixth occurrence he was hit for stalling. It was not popular with the crowd, but it was right.
Strikes/whiffs :(
For those of you that have been reading my Blog you have more than likely noticed that I do not use wrestlers names, and only occasionally throw in a coaches name. This is going to be an exception to that rule. In the finals of the 171 pound match I was the referee. Jared Hemmings of Greater Atlanta Christian was wrestling Jonathan Hill of McEachern. It was a good close match with plenty of action. Late in the match down by one Hill cut Hemmings to tie it up with a takedown. In the ensuing scramble Hill ended up turning the corner on Hemmings and took his back as they were going out of bounds. Hemmings kept his hips high and drove the position out of bounds. I did not get my bat off of my shoulder. I did not award the takedown, because In that quick instance I did not think he had control. The coach did not call for a conference so that decision stood. As the end of the match drew near, Hill got a little too aggressive, and Hemming was able to take him down to his back at the end of the match. Here is the bad part and the reason I feel like I owe Hill an apology. Coach Fakalaris asked me after the match about the situation, and I explained that I did not think he had control, but it was really close, and if my assistant had have told me that he thought it was a takedown I probably would have awarded it. Latter I asked the assistant if he thought it was a takedown, and he said yes. He said he did not let me know because I did not ask his opinion. This call may, or may not have cost Hill a win. I would love to be able to correct it, and if the coach had have asked for a conference before I had restarted the wrestlers, I probably would have asked the assistant, and we would have gotten that call right. Sorry Coach Fakalaris, and Mr Hill, I think I missed that call. In another match that I was the assistant in, I think there was another illegal headlock, but it happened so fast we may have missed it.
I will learn from my mistakes, and utilize assistants better the next opportunity I have.
Good tournament Coach Robbins, thanks for having us.

Red is bad luck.

I have run at least three tournaments a year over the past 4 years at Apalachee High School. There have been Youth, Middle School, High school, Area, and a few Fargo Qualifiers. For the first time in 4 years I was not going to be there for a tournament. Dick Shepard and Craig Bently took care of it though, and the report I got is that it was smooth as silk. I on the other hand was at Morgan County for the Christmas tournament.
Coach Robins puts on a good tournament that I have enjoyed as a coach, and felt right at home as an official. We were given a place to change, and put our stuff, which gave us one less thing to worry about during the tournament. There was some competitive, tough matches with lots of back and forth action which kept me on my toes. Late in the night, I was moved to the nice Red Mat. For some reason, I had about four matches in a row that had extended blood time. Two skinned knees, a bloody nose, a cut brow, and a scraped elbow. I felt like I was working for the Red Cross. We pushed through and got done at a reasonable hour, and I had some great conversations with several coaches. The most interesting call of the night had wrestler A attempting a bulldog. Wrestler B circled out and planted Wrestler A on his back. Wrestler A had such a tight choke around Wrestler B that I had to stop the match to keep B from getting injured. Wrestler B got 2 for the Takedown, 2 for the imminent near fall, and 1 for the illegal hold.
We will be back at it in the morning with semis, consos, and finals.

Wait, wait, weight.

Had a quad meet tonight at Loganville. Although I enjoyed some great entertaining matches, and a one point dual win. I was a little disappointed with the guys that could not wrestle. They could not wrestle because they would reset their weight loss plan. If they had weighed in for Tuesday, they would not be able to wrestle as low this Friday. I am not getting into a political tirade about the weight loss plan because I have seen this with the old system as well. I remember showing up to watch a wrestler in a week day dual, and see that they did not weigh in because they were to heavy.

OK, on to officiating. With the recent tirade on the GNWA vent, I felt a little extra stress to do a good job. Trust me, I want to get it right every time I step on the mat. I concentrated on my mechanics and positioning, as well as getting the calls right. Even with the extra effort, I am pretty sure I missed a defensive pin. I had some great scrambles on my mat, and although one of the coaches disagreed on one of the takedowns, I feel like I got them correct. I had some wrestlers show up to the mat with undershirts on. I let the first one go, and explained it to the coach. Another undershirt showed up on the mat, and I had to give his opponent a point for a technical violation and start his injury time while he took the shirt off. I caught the next one before he got to the table, and was able to get him to take it off before he reported to the table. The last one is the only one I feel that I got right, but I felt good about there being a progression towards getting the best outcome.

I am committed to continuously improve, and even though I had a coach tell me that I was a great ref (same one that argued the takedown) I am looking for more criticism. If you see me blow a call, talk to me about it.

I will be at the Morgan County Tournament Friday and Saturday. I am looking forward to it.