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.