What a week off.

As of Friday, I was off school for a week, but I was pretty busy.
11/20 Collins Hill for Jv duals.
11/22 Washed the exterior of my house, and worked in the yard in preparation for home inspection.
11/23 Central Gwinnett Varsity/Jv tri meet.
11/24 Newton County Varsity Duals.
11/25 Two thanksgiving dinners, pinata breaking, and a hoe down.
11/26 Youth tournament at Oconee, and another thanksgiving dinner.
11/27 Varsity Duals at Grayson, and write new blog.
Sunday is my vacation day.
Monday I will be back to work, and I will only have three officiating assignments for the week.
It is hard to get in shape for officiating, so I tend to get sore, tired and worn out by tournaments, but my conditioning is pretty good right now. Nothing I have done gets me in shape for the constant ups and down on the mat. You constantly have to change levels with the wrestlers. I feel good today, I guess my preseason work paid off.
I had plenty of interesting experiences, and enjoyed my busy week.
The Tri at Central ended up being more of a dual and a half. One of the teams showed up late, and one team left early, so Central is the only team that wrestled twice. I officiated all of the jv action, and one half of one of the varsity duals.

The varsity duals at Newton had some exciting matches, and strong wrestlers, but the day started of on a sour note. I arrived early despite the detours I had to take, to find one of the other officials was earlier than me. The bad news is that the other two officials were MIA. I got on the phone, and we managed to wake up a young official that had overslept. He arrived about an hour late. We were not able to contact the fourth official at all. I looked around and found a dad who I knew used to officiate, and he agreed to fill in. We got him a shirt, a whistle, some wristbands, and a flip disc, and we were good to go.
I felt like I did a good job all day long, but you can't make it through a full day of officiating without missing something. One of my other friends who is a big stickler for the rules (even had a rule book in his back pocket) told me I did a good job, but had made a mistake. I told him I missed a call in an out of bounds situation. The offensive wrestler had turned the defensive man. I had a one stroke and the defensive man got out of bounds. The offensive mans' coach asked if there were any back points, and I told him no. The defensive man got out of bounds before the two count. That is where my mistake was. I should have awarded the offensive wrestler a point because the defensive wrestler was fleeing the mat. That is a technical violation. If near fall points have been earned you can get out of bounds without penalty, but if no near fall points have been earned it is fleeing the mat.
Later, I had an offensive wrestler do a trip to a trap armed side. I blew my whistle and called it potential dangerous, but they still hit the mat. The coach argued that it was illegal, and I said not when I stopped the action. I could have called it illegal, but it did not effect the outcome of the match, and gave the coach a story to tell.
Now for the ironic parts of the day. The dad who was officiating (Ronnie Milhoff)was getting pretty tired, so he went to the mat that he thought would finish first, and his sixth dual of the day did finish first, unfortunately there was a seventh dual on that mat. Sorry Ronnie. The young official who woke up late got some karmic retribution as well. He had a keyless entry system on his car so he just locked his keys in. For some reason, when he went to get in his car, the battery was dead. Since his keys were on the inside, he could not even jump the car. He had to call his parents for help.
On a side-note, there was a young coach at the tournament who was constantly coaching his wrestlers while they were on the mat. Unfortunately many coaches spend a lot of time telling the officials how to call the match which does not help their wrestlers at all. I made sure that I let the young coach now what I thought about the job he did, and by the way, his team won the tournament.
Thanksgiving morning, I was called and asked to cover the Oconee youth tournament. I said yes, but had a feeling that I would be called of later. I knew that the number of entries was lower than expected, and they would not need as many officials as they booked. Thursday night I did get called, and was asked to work still. When I showed up, we ended up with one to many officials. I told the other officials that I would stay as a Team Georgia rep, and act as a sounding board for the coaches. The tournament was going Well when one of the officials asked me if his elbow looked swollen. It was huge, and looked deformed. I told him to ice it, and let me know if he could stay. He made the right choice and headed home. I gave the rest of the officials the choice to work through without an extra, and I would give them bathroom breaks, or to put me in rotation. The chose the breaks route. I called one great match. It was all tied up with very little time to go. The defensive wrestle got free, and faced the offensive wrestler as he went out of bounds. The offensive wrestler quickly shot in and grabbed a leg, but finished out of bounds. It was good action, but beyond reaction time so I awarded the escape. No more points were scored, and the escape artist won.
Today I was at Grayson, and everything was smooth as silk. I felt like I was strong as an official today, and enjoyed myself. I am doing a much better job of keeping up with choice, which saves a lot of time, and makes you look more professional. I met some great young men and women today who were wrestling, and working the tables. It was a big reminder of some of the things I love about this sport.
Next week will be kind of light. I will be at Salem on Wednesday, Social Circle on Thursday, and Lambert on Saturday. I am kidding about that being a light week, on top of a full time job, it is very busy. If I wasn't officiating, I would just be going to watch.

First time readers.

For those of you checking this out for the first time, the intent is to show the perspective of an official. We always here plenty from coaches, and parents (I have been both), but rarely from officials.
It was a long week due to the thanksgiving break approaching, and the kids in school getting a little nutty. I broke up a fight between a couple of girls Tuesday morning, and was calling Eastside's Wrestle-offs by Wednesday night. The week finally came to an end, and Saturday would be my official kick off to the season.
I was at Collins Hill this morning for a Jv meet with four different schools. They ran duals on two mats, and had a third mat for extra match-ups. All three officials worked a dual on all three mats. The matches were well run, and we got a ton of wrestling done in about three and a half hours.
I felt like I did a good job today. I had one scramble that I awarded a reversal for, and the defensive wrestler reversed again fairly quickly. It might have been a nonscoring situation, but no real harm done. Near the end of my third dual, I used a coin toss for choice at the beginning of the second period. Now if you are paying attention you are saying why the heck did you do that. I ended up giving the wrong person choice, and he won by techfall. If the coaches were paying attention, they could have requested bad time, and had the second period rewrestled. They didn't notice, but if they are reading this, they will more than likely notice next time.

There were several pins with inexperienced wrestlers. Some of the wrestlers did not know what had happened. I even had one ask me, what happened. I said you won by fall. The kid still didn't understand, so I said you pinned him and raised his hand. It was funny.
There were several wrestlers there in their first GHSA event, who I have known since they were preschoolers. Man I felt old.
The most common question asked by officials early in the season came up. For some reason it is very common for us (officials) to pull a brain fart when it comes to back points. The standard confusion comes from a two count being two points. I am not sure why, but it is commonly confused that a three count is two points. I have seen this every year I have been involved with wrestling.
I updated my billing spreadsheet, and will be emailing it a little latter.
Next week I will be at Central Gwinnett, Newton County, and Grayson next Saturday. Somewhere in their I guess I'll eat some turkey, and think about all of the starving wrestlers.

Wrestlers are a different breed

I got my wife, son, and his girlfriend to meet me in the parking lot right after school, and we caravaned up to Rome for Shorter's inaugural dual. At 4:00pm we were on our way. After fighting through traffic for two and a half hours we arrived. Before I choose a seat, I had four different wrestlers great me, and explain why they were not wrestling in the dual. It was funny to me that they felt a need to let me know why they weren't wrestling. I was just glad to see them, and have a chance to ask them how their grades were. I shook hands with several other people before I settled into a seat with my family. There was some pomp and circumstance to start the dual including a big check for matching funds presented by Team Georgia. The dual was starting, but it was going to be shortened by several matches due to forfeits. Shorter was looking very good, opening up with two first period falls. One of my favorite wrestling families appeared sitting right beside and behind me. Next thing you now, the dual is over. I walked the floor shaking hands with local coaches, wrestlers, and parents before we leave. My son and his girlfriend were going to Alabama to visit her grandparents so we grabbed a bite to eat before we split paths. A little before midnight and I was home. I had to be up early in the morning, so I got to bed as soon as I could. four plus hours of driving for about an hour of wrestling, and some comradery. I wouldn't have changed a thing.
Morning comes, and I am at Lambert. We have a USA tournament/training session. It is a chance for us to get matches in with other officials critiquing our calls, mechanics, and composure. I enjoy these events because it is something we do not get a chance to do during the season. Before we get started a middle school age wrestler comes up to me and shakes hands. He says that he had to go in for an extra work out last night to make sure he was on weight this morning. As his mom was driving him home they were hit by another car. He said it smashed up the front of their car badly. I asked if everyone was ok, and he said yes, but here is the funny part. As the police officer was writing up the accident report the mom told him that he needed to get her son's wrestling bag out of the car, so that he would not have to miss his match in the morning. That is a wrestling mom.
We had three officials with experience on our mat, and two that had not called any matches yet. I had a bad first match because I kept holding up the wrong color for points. I got it straightened out at the table, and no harm was done. It was not a very professional first match and not a good way to set the tone with the table workers, or the newer officials. The experienced officials did a good job of working with the new guys, but I think they could use some more practice on mechanics before they call any high pressure matches. Everyone on our mat did a good job of making the correct calls, but the newer guys needed practice selling their calls. They needed to make their calls in a crisp forceful manner, and be vocal. That takes practice, and they both improved throughout the day.
I caught a U17 girls soccer game Sunday, and helped scout one of the teams as I watched a young lady who plays for me on the opposing team. I was scouting for a friend of mine who showed up late in the second half. I gave him my report, and we discussed how much different it is being on the parents side of the field for a game. Sitting in the stands for a wrestling meet is similar. Sometimes it is easier to go stand by yourself so that you are not distracted by all of the comments.
I ended my weekend with a conference call for the TGWOA. That's Team Georgia Wrestling Officials Association. Although there were only four people on the call. We got a unique perspective from several viewpoints. I think we could have talked for two hours, but holding to standards, we limited the call to an hour, and opened up several questions/problems to solve during the next call. I am not loving the process, but I think in the end the hard work, will be good for Georgia wrestling.
I will be at Eastside Wednesday evening for wrestle-offs. I did a couple of wrestle-offs for them last year, and they had great action. I am looking forward to it. This will be my last practice session before opening day. I open with a JV quad at Collins Hill. Good luck everyone.

It's here.

Earlier this week a Commerce parent asked my son about getting my help to find an official for an inner squad Middle School practice Dual at Commerce. Zak told him he would ask me, and a few minutes latter, I booked myself for a nice practice session at Commerce. They were worried about payment, but what you have to realize is that it is practice for the officials as well, and we are happy to do such events for free.
     Now this next story proves I am a wrestling guy. When I got to the gym, Chance, and Chip McClure were in the parking lot. Chip takes a second to comment on the Smart car that I bought from Tom Mitchell. Next Chip says no wrestling for another week. I asked why. He said we are still playing football. Now a normal person would have congratulated the Dad, and football player for making the playoffs, but the first thing that came out of my mouth was, that's too bad. I didn't even think about it til latter. Congratulations Chance.
     On to the matches. The dual had a combination of very experienced, and new wrestlers. I gave the boys a typical pre meet talk, and wished them luck. The boys wrestled very hard, so stalling calls were not a consideration. There was good hard nosed wrestling, with no cheap shots, so I had no unnecessary roughness, or flagrant misconduct calls. There were some illegal holds, and a couple of boys that were to upset to follow end of match procedures that lead to unsportsmanlike conduct calls.

        I had one situation where the defensive man was working hard for a reversal, and the offensive man locked hands. I signaled locked hands, and delayed the call because the defensive man was about to score. Before I could stop the action, the offensive man unlocked, and relocked his hands. Once the offensive man stopped the initial move of the defensive man, I stopped the action, and awarded one point technical violation locked hands, then another. I had to explain to the table that it was two different locked hand calls.
     Before I left, I talked to the group about the importance of the post match ritual, and preventing the possibility of costing your team a point. I thanked them for having me, and talked to the parent who contacted me. It was a good night, but it was about to get better.
     When I got home, I grabbed the clippers, went upstairs, shaved my head, and took a shower. It's always better to do this in the winter, or fall so that you don't look like a qtip.  I walked around the house for 30 minutes before my wife or son even noticed. Right before I headed up for bed, I checked my email, and the most anticipated email for officials was there. The first half schedule. I gave it a quick glance, and was happy with the number of bookings, and variety of locations I had. I have a good mix of MS, JV, and Varsity matches. I didn't notice til this morning that I was double booked on one date. Ilet our booking agent know, and it is being handled. I sent a confirmation of bookings to all of the head coaches this morning, and most of them have already replied. now it feels like wrestling season.
     I am off to Rome tonight to watch the Shorter inaugural dual. i am excited about seeing so many of the kids I know wrestling in their first college Dual. My wife, my son Zak, and his girlfriend are all going to watch. I will be at Lambert in the morning for a USA event. Hope to see you at both.   

Training, training, meeting

Another busy weekend.
Friday night I was at Loganville watching the Apalachee football team play its last game of the year. With the loss to Loganville, the teams hope of making the playoffs was over.
Saturday morning came early with a trip to Collins Hill for a training session at a USA tournament. The numbers were a little small, so there were only three mats. There were about 20 officials. I did not have to officiate much, but we discussed every difficult, or opinionated call as a group and it was a great learning experience. I had some pretty competent officials on my mat so it was a lot of fun. Just a few small tweaks in timing, and some advice on selling your calls was all my group really needed. We were through officiating before 11:00pm. The mats were rolled, and I was out the door.
I went home, cleaned up, grabbed the wife, and had a nice lunch before heading to sectionals for the cheerleaders. My wife had never seen a cheer competition, and really enjoyed it. The local girls competed without many mistakes, and the coach was very happy. They placed second in their division, and qualified for the next level. Another good performance next Friday, and they will make it to State.
Sunday morning came late(time change), and I had a full afternoon ahead of me.  By 2:30, I was at The all officials meeting. This is something the state started last year in an effort to be more consistent. We had a two hour clinic with several presenters reviewing some of the more difficult situations as an official. They will be emailing me the notes from the clinic to review, and I will post them here on my Blog. There were about two hundred officials there representing all of the associations throughout the state. As always it was a good meeting, and good to see all of the guys who love the sport as much as I do. I found out that all of the Team Georgia National Team Officials had achieved upgrades as well. What that means is, that we all fulfilled the requirements for upgrades, had excellent reviews, were recommended by our state, and passed a vote at a USA national meeting. We have two new M1 officials in the state, Krisa, and Buck Timbs. I am proud of them and look forward to the day I achieve my M1 status.
The meeting ended about 5:00, and I stayed around socializing till about 5:30. Next on my agenda was a trip to the Domanico's for a Team Georgia Board meeting. Although we took care of business till 9:00pm, the meeting is not a total boar. We discussed interesting topics the entire time, and i got to see some of my more enjoyable friends. I was happy with the meeting, Danny and I only got in trouble once. We were having a little side bar conversation about the wrestlers at Oklahoma City University while Anthony was in the middle of conversation. Because we were also on a conference call for those that could not attend in person he threw a pen at us instead of telling us to shut-up. Danny and I finished the conversation by passing notes.
I will be at Lambert next weekend for our final training session. I look forward to seeing you there.

Groundhog's day

Groundhog's day

Itinerary.
Thursday 10/28
6:45 pm load bus at TWA.
Friday 10/29
9:45am debuss at Hotel in Cedar Rapids Iowa.
Two workouts for overweight wrestlers.
4:00pm back on the bus to go to the unidome, and workout.
5:00pm pick up weigh-in cards and prestage for weigh-ins. I worked weigh-ins till 7:45 and was released by the head official.
8:00pm Destruction of a local Chinese buffet.
10:30 room checks
11:00 lights out
12:00 sleep on floor ( Beds are too small, and Moistner is a cuddler)
Saturday 10/30
6:15am Wake up call.
7:15am back on the bus to the Unidome
9:00am-9:00pm officiate.
10:00pm Applebees.
11:30pm bed checks
Sunday 10/31
12:00 lights out check
1:00am bed to myself
4:15am Wake up call
5:00am back on the bus
10:00pm back at TWA.

The reason I say it was like Groundhog's day is because every time I woke up, I was on a bus.
I know my blog is about Officiating, but I want to start off by saying that the group that went on this trip did a great job. There were no discipline problems on the bus, or at the hotel, and everyone wrestled hard. I officiated three matches with a Georgia wrestler in it, but did not get to see much of them wrestle unfortunately. After I officiated a few finals, I got a break, and watched Marshawn wrestle his consi-finals match. He wrestled very tough e ven though he was obviously worn down by the grind of the entire trip. Marshawn beat a talented wrestler to bring home 3rd.
On to officiating. When I work a National tournament I always compare them to Fargo. It relay isn't fair because Fargo is the most organized event I have ever been to. Unlike Fargo we did not have any rules meetings, but we did discuss the rules that were pertinent to this competition. No hair rule, no facial hair rule enforced, and abbreviated overtime. Match times were also cut short.
We were not assigned to mats. The head official just told us to form teams. I mdid not mind rotating to the younger age groups, but they had split mats, and I was not comfortable working in such a closed in space. I went to a mat that was close to the split mat so that even if I had to work the split mat, I would at least get to rotate off. I ended up with a 5 man team covering 4 mats. We had High School , and Middle School matches on our mats.
There are plenty of ways to tell if you are doing a good job as an official. One of them is a lack of requests for meetings. I made it till 2:00pm before I was called to the table for anything, so I had a great morning. There were great scrambles on my mat all day long. The scrambling is an area where I could tell a difference between the wrestling I normally see in the Southeast. The scrambles were much longer, and great to officiate. I had a good scramble on my mat, saw control beyond reaction time, called the takedown, and the opponent immediately got the reversal. I probably could have waived off the tekedown, but I was confident in my call. There was no time out called, and the match continued. At the end of the match I was approached, and my call was questioned. I signaled coaches misconduct, and gave the coach his warning. He said I don't care and continued to argue the call. I looked down and saw that he did not have a coaches band, and realized why he did not care that he had been warned. I stopped talking to him and walked away. In another match the defensive wrestler was almost clear on an escape so the offensive wrestler lifted him, and drove him out of bounds. In my mind I had to decide to make a call or not. These decisions happen all day long as you are officiating, and something that gets easier with experience. It was active aggressive wrestling, and would have lead to back points if it had have been in the center of the mat, so I did not call stalling. The offensive wrestler did have the option to complete the maneuver in bounds, but choose to drive straight out. He had forced the wrestler out of bounds to prevent a dangerous situation. Forcing a wrestler out to avoid scoring is clearly outlined as a technical violation, so that is the call I made. At this point the wrestler made a comment, and I gave him a freebie. I warned him to stop talking. On a restart, the same wrestler jumped before I blew the whistle. I gave the caution for false start, and he argued the call. I called unsportsmanlike for 1 point and continued the match. Latter in the match he got another false start, and argued the call. I called caution for false start, and 1 point for unsportsmanlike. He false started again, and I cautioned him, awarded one point for the third false start, and he argued the call again. This third unsportsmanlike call got him a 2 point penalty, and he argued again which disqualified him from the match. I took the time to explain to his dad that it did not disqualify him from the tournament, just the match. The wrestler came back to the mat and said you suck, but I choose to ignore it so that he could wrestle his next match. That was a mistake on my part. Letting him stay at the tournament was a disservice to all of the people at the tournament that were putting there hearts on the line and behaving with good sportsmanship. Instead of reprimanding his wrestler, the dad came over to say something to me. I noticed the lack of a coaches band again, and asked him to leave the area. The only other close call that could have gone either way. The defensive wrestler was coming up, turned and separated from the offensive wrestler. The offensive wrestler doubled him out of bounds. I called one escape. The coach asked if I had noticed the double leg, and I told him it was beyond reaction time, and the conversation ended. It ended up going to overtime, and the offensive wrestler won. There was no question about his takedown in overtime, and I was glad. Did I mention that the wrestler was Dallas Brown, and the coach was Sean Moistner. I would not have heard the end of it if the match would have come down to a judgment call.
I called several consolation finals, and final matches, and saw some great wrestling. The tournament was tough, competitive, and a great experience for the wrestlers who attended. The newer, chaperons, and Dads that came appreciated the trip as well. The Unidome was a great place for the tournament with natural light filtering in, great seating, and unobstructed views.
As an official it was a challenging tournament. We had long stretches on the mat without a break, and when you did have a break there was almost never food available. Fortunately, I planned on the lack of ability to get food and packed a large bag of p nut M&Ms. Their were volunteers as well as college wrestlers helping man the tables, and they did a great job. Ethan B. was there working, and told me his coach wants him at 165. Welcome to college Ethan.
Training continues this weekend at Collins Hill where my group will be training at the preseason USA tournament. We will have a statewide officials meeting at 3:00pm Sunday at Holy Innocence. I am looking forward to both.