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.