Not on my mat!

After viewing the Jefferson machine work their tournament last week, it was a pleasure to officiate a youth tournament this weekend. Our tables were run by High School girls who did an excellent job. I have to give a big shout out to the girls from mat number two. They kept my mat moving all day.
I had a wide variety of matches on the day. I had some kids wrestling their first time ever, all the way up to two wrestlers going head to head that could be top placers at National Tournaments. I had kids crying during their matches, and some even talking back to their coaches. I even had a father/coach/official telling his son to choose down only to watch him choose neutral (that one made me laugh).
As head official, I had some extra duties to help make sure the tournament ran smooth.
Even though there were no big problems on my mat, I had coaches and officials coming over to ask questions between matches. I even broke out my rule book once. I had the rule right, but I had to show it to someone in print just to verify it.
One of the other officials watched one of the last matches of the day on my mat. He said I was mean. He said that because I was calling stalling, and making the kids stay in the middle of the mat and wrestle. At this time of the season, I am not holding back on some calls that I might have let go, or been lenient on earlier in the season. It is getting closer and closer to state, and everyone needs to pick it up a notch. When I make a call, I don't always tell the wrestlers what it is, and I wait for the coaches to ask questions. When they ask I try to give an answer that they can understand, and everyone seemed to respond well to that.
The highlight of the day was a match between to of the best wrestlers in the gym. It was supposed to be on another mat, but I ended up with it. I remember these same two wrestling each other several times at a Parkview Tournament at least seven years ago. They were two tiny little guys out on the mat hitting real wrestling moves. Today they were two well muscled lightweights, soon to enter High School and it was a great battle. It was not the closest match of the day, but was still great to see, and I would like to see it latter in the year to see how both of these young men progress.
Number two highlight was seeing Jesse Miller there to help coach his little brothers. I reminded him of an old freestyle match that he broke a four time state champions nose with his butt, but that is another story.