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.