Another busy week

Wednesday I attended a mandatory rules meeting at Parkview. I already attended a meeting early in the year, but I always like attending two. They are like a social event for me. I was very happy to hear what the NWCA rep had to say, and even more excited about using his program to do live scoring at the state tournaments this year. I am going to be helping with that process, and love the fact that people from other states will be able to log on and see the outcomes of different matches as they occur.

The weekend started off well with another trip to the Varsity in Athens. Unfortunately my school's football team did not manage the win as visitors to Cedar Shoals. I left a little early because I knew I would be up early Saturday to work a tournament.

Work for free/training.
As part of our preseason training, MAWOA work some local tournaments free of charge. We have three events this year, and the first one was Saturday at Mountainview. The tournament had a good turn out with about 140 wrestlers going at it on 4 mats. We had about 15-16 officials there, and practiced using assistant referees, and critiqued each other on our performances. These experiences are great for improving technique, and seeing things from a different perspective. The crew I worked with all had at least one year of experience bellow there belts so there was not a lot of controversy on our mat. every time I saw a call that could have gone a different way, or a close call, we took time to discuss it as a group. It was a great learning experience for all of us.

In the middle of the tournament I had to leave the mat for A Team Georgia Officials committee meeting. This was an initial meeting for this group, and I am excited to say that we will be forming a new officials association to handle USA events. We are still working out the details, but it will be a service offered this year to USA events that have not booked there officials as of yet. We have plenty of lofty goals for the group, and we are going to work hard to realize these goals.

By the time I returned to the tournament, it was winding down, but I still got in a few more matches. It is great to have an opportunity to practice assistant referee work, and confer on every match.
Goofy me left my wallet home Saturday morning, so I did not get my normal morning goodies at QT on the way to the tournament.(I plan my routes to pass a QT) That in and of itself is no big deal, but after the tournament there was going to be a clinic that I wanted to attend. One of my old semi adopted sons was helping with the clinic and asked if I was going to stay. I said of coarse, but I had to find some food. I got to the concession stand which was closed, and begged for what ever they had. i got a diet Coke, pickle,and a Snickers Bar. Great lunch, but beggars can't be choosers.

The clinic was promoted by FCA, and was inspirational in many ways. The coach from UTC was the clinician, and he put on a great clinic.

I got home and got a nap in so I could stay up late enough to watch the UFC. Lessner got smashed, enough said.
Sunday came and by half time of the Falcon's game it was time to head to another MAWOA training session. we covered out of bounds situations, near fall criteria, and what to do if a wrestler poops himself. Honestly there was lots of other topics, but those were the most entertaining. The session lasted about two hours, and was very productive. We will be back in action on 11/6/10 at Collins Hill with another practice event.

Just one more wrestling related detail for the day. A 9:00pm conference call with the Team Georgia Officials Committee. We did have one person join the call who was not at the Saturday meeting, and gave us some different perspective. We revisited how we were going to fund the program again, and that is a little up in the air. We are moving forward this year, getting the program started, and will be in full swing before preseason next year. It's an exciting time for wrestling in Georgia.