As you may or may not know I am a teacher. I have been off work since the 20th, and do not return til the 4th. It is a great opportunity to see a lot of wrestling, and take care of business. I did a little of each.
As a teacher I get paid once a month. My wife is also a teacher. We both got paid on the 20th of December, and will not get paid again til the end of January. That makes January the longest month of the year every year. My wife and I were smart this year. We refinanced our house with a credit union, and right after the closing, I refinanced both of our cars. Not only will we save thousands in the long run, but I will have no car, or house payments in December. Why did I include this in a Blog about officiating? Although officiating is a hobbie, a way to see wrestling close up, and by far my favorite sport it is a paying job.
I had some good dates booked for the break, and looked to earn some extra cash. I was scheduled to work Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday right at the start of the break. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I got moved from my Friday night assignment, my Sunday assignment was canceled, Tuesday was compressed into Mondays event, and I donated my time on Monday. So I went from 5 days of work down to one. Second week I was assigned Dixie Nationals, and A Varsity Dual Tournament at Monroe Area High School. I noticed that no one was assigned to work the Minion Duals, so I got on the phone, and made sure everyone involved got it together. I was offered the tournament, but I was busy closing loans that day.
I got to see plenty of wrestling, and got a chance to talk to some coaches, parents, and wrestlers. I watched the first night of the Gwinnett County Championships, a youth tournament, the Kyle Maynard Duals, and a Varsity Dual Tournament at Archer. I had lots of great moments from these two weeks, but here are some of my favorites.
Talking with parents of wrestlers I coached in youth clubs.
Watching kids that my son works with wrestling well.
Talking about officiating with other officials.
Not wearing my Collins Hill hoodie to Collins Hill.
Mistakenly wearing the hoodie to Archer.
No irate coaches/dads at Dixie.
One of my highlights that really stand out was at Archer. I got some time with my old friend, and recruit Craig Bently. I had some good conversation with Ronnie Milhoff(We lived in the same neighborhood, and graduated from the same high school). I talked with some of the officials between duals as well. I was watching some boys I know from West Forsyth wrestle while talking with Dalas Brown. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a hard takedown, and noticed that the official called it a slam. I walked over to the score table because the wrestler was taking recovery time. I was checking to see if the table understood that it was two minutes for recovery not a minute and a half. The official was by the table and told me he got it right, that he actually knew some of the rules. While I was at the table, I heard the coach of the wrestler who had been slammed say that his wrestler could not continue. The official called the wrestlers to the center of the mat, and raised the hand of the injured wrestler. The coach of the wrestler who lost came to the table and said so my wrestler looses because the other guy does not know how to wrestle. The official said no it was a slam. The coach said it wasn't a slam. Before I could keep from saying it out loud, I said that's coaches misconduct. The official laughed and started to walk away. He did not call misconduct. The coach looked up at me and told me to go away, and change my shirt(Collins Hill Hoodie). I smiled and started to say that's rude, but that's unsportsmanlike came out of my mouth. Honestly, I should not have gone to the table, should not have made any comments, and I hope the coach has no hard feelings. None of it was meant in harm, and I apologize if it came across that way.
I was kind of hoping that I would be assigned to one of the Area Duals. I will be working a youth tournament instead. Don't get me wrong, we have some of the best youth wrestlers in the Nation right here in Georgia, and the youth tournament could have better wrestling then a Dual I could have been assigned to. It is nice to see the high emotional involvement of the High school teams and fans at Area Duals though. If you go to Macon for State I will be there volunteering my time again. I think I will be helping with NWCA's online scoring system. I can't believe it is only a couple of weeks away.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Bloody bad call.
I had a lite week this week. I had no events during the week, and because of some scheduling conflicts, I ended up being off Friday night as well.
Wednesday one of the wrestlers at my school asked if I was working. Since I wasn't he asked me to come watch at Flowery Branch. Apalachee was in tri with Flowery Branch and Jefferson. It was a good chance to see some talented wrestlers, and catch up with old acquaintances. Jefferson was dominant and the duals were not competitive. There were two mats with Varsity on one mat, and JV/MS wrestling match ups on the other. I was looking at the JV mat when action on the varsity match caught my eye. The Apalachee wrestler had a figure four on the Jefferson wrestler's head with his shin bone crossing the Jefferson wrestlers throat. The official stopped the match, and I thought he signaled illegal, and awarded the Jefferson wrestler one point. The Apalachee wrestler's mom asked me what he called. I asked her if they were neutral when it happened and she said they weren't. In between duals I went to ask the official about it. I know him, but we are not well acquainted. He got a little defensive as he explained the call so I walked away quickly after I got an explanation. He said that it was a neutral position making it a technical violation. I said so you called technical violation. He said it is a technical violation. I walked off. I did not tell him that he showed the signal for illegal hold. I may be mistaken so I just let it be. The point is he did not like me asking him about the call, and I was not there to critique him, I was just getting an answer for a confused parent. Officials can be sensitive.
Friday night I was able to watch Gwinnett County Championships at Peachtree Ridge. I really like this tournament because I coached youth in Gwinnett for a few years, and there are always a ton of wrestlers I know in the tournament. There was a good mix of kids I have coached as well as kids my son currently works with, and talks about all the time. There was some good solid wrestling with only a couple of surprises. I ended the night talking with another official that was there watching his son. He had started up a youth program in Gwinnett this year so we have a lot in common. We were watching one of my favorite young officials and ended up critiquing him. He never missed a call, but he did a poor job of using signals to communicate what he was calling. We knew what he was calling, but a random fan would likely be confused. As I was driving away, I saw the young official leaving. I rolled down my window and said ref you suck. To my surprise he turned around to see who said it. He smiled, and made fun of my car.
Saturday was here, and it was time to work. I was at Oconee, and the coach that told me I needed a protractor was there as well. I was the head official and it was my turn to talk to the coaches. I told all of the coaches that even though i made it look as if I could not hear what they were saying, that i took everything that they said to heart. I asked the protractor coach if he had brought the present that he had promised me. He looked totally confused and said I don't know what you are talking about. I pulled a protractor out of my pocket and told him that I had been practicing.
During one of the more competitive duals, in a very close match, there was a blood stoppage. One of the wrestlers had a bloody nose. We got everything cleaned up and restarted. The match was tied in the third period, and there was a pinning situation. The wrestler with the bloody nose was giving up back points. I already had a two count when his nose plug came out, and he began to bleed. I continued with the situation till I was sure there would not be a fall. Because I was stopping for blood in a pinning combination I awarded an extra point. I held up 4 points near fall. The coach of the bleeding wrestler asked if what I had done was correct, and honestly it wasn't. I got caught up in the heat of the match, and I allowed it to lead to a bad call. I talked to the coach latter, and told him I should have stopped it the second the nose plug came out. It would have been a three point near fall instead of four.
There was some close exciting Duals which made the tournament fun to work. One of the other officials requested to work the finals, so I said OK. I worked the 7th place match. Honestly, I think it is more difficult to call a seventh palace match than a first place match. The better the wrestlers are, the easier it is for me to predict what they are going to do next. This allows me more time to get into position to make my calls. the difference in the seventh place match and the first place match was like the grand canyon. I finished fairly quickly, and was able to watch a lot of the first place match, and observe all of the other officials.
Wednesday one of the wrestlers at my school asked if I was working. Since I wasn't he asked me to come watch at Flowery Branch. Apalachee was in tri with Flowery Branch and Jefferson. It was a good chance to see some talented wrestlers, and catch up with old acquaintances. Jefferson was dominant and the duals were not competitive. There were two mats with Varsity on one mat, and JV/MS wrestling match ups on the other. I was looking at the JV mat when action on the varsity match caught my eye. The Apalachee wrestler had a figure four on the Jefferson wrestler's head with his shin bone crossing the Jefferson wrestlers throat. The official stopped the match, and I thought he signaled illegal, and awarded the Jefferson wrestler one point. The Apalachee wrestler's mom asked me what he called. I asked her if they were neutral when it happened and she said they weren't. In between duals I went to ask the official about it. I know him, but we are not well acquainted. He got a little defensive as he explained the call so I walked away quickly after I got an explanation. He said that it was a neutral position making it a technical violation. I said so you called technical violation. He said it is a technical violation. I walked off. I did not tell him that he showed the signal for illegal hold. I may be mistaken so I just let it be. The point is he did not like me asking him about the call, and I was not there to critique him, I was just getting an answer for a confused parent. Officials can be sensitive.
Friday night I was able to watch Gwinnett County Championships at Peachtree Ridge. I really like this tournament because I coached youth in Gwinnett for a few years, and there are always a ton of wrestlers I know in the tournament. There was a good mix of kids I have coached as well as kids my son currently works with, and talks about all the time. There was some good solid wrestling with only a couple of surprises. I ended the night talking with another official that was there watching his son. He had started up a youth program in Gwinnett this year so we have a lot in common. We were watching one of my favorite young officials and ended up critiquing him. He never missed a call, but he did a poor job of using signals to communicate what he was calling. We knew what he was calling, but a random fan would likely be confused. As I was driving away, I saw the young official leaving. I rolled down my window and said ref you suck. To my surprise he turned around to see who said it. He smiled, and made fun of my car.
Saturday was here, and it was time to work. I was at Oconee, and the coach that told me I needed a protractor was there as well. I was the head official and it was my turn to talk to the coaches. I told all of the coaches that even though i made it look as if I could not hear what they were saying, that i took everything that they said to heart. I asked the protractor coach if he had brought the present that he had promised me. He looked totally confused and said I don't know what you are talking about. I pulled a protractor out of my pocket and told him that I had been practicing.
During one of the more competitive duals, in a very close match, there was a blood stoppage. One of the wrestlers had a bloody nose. We got everything cleaned up and restarted. The match was tied in the third period, and there was a pinning situation. The wrestler with the bloody nose was giving up back points. I already had a two count when his nose plug came out, and he began to bleed. I continued with the situation till I was sure there would not be a fall. Because I was stopping for blood in a pinning combination I awarded an extra point. I held up 4 points near fall. The coach of the bleeding wrestler asked if what I had done was correct, and honestly it wasn't. I got caught up in the heat of the match, and I allowed it to lead to a bad call. I talked to the coach latter, and told him I should have stopped it the second the nose plug came out. It would have been a three point near fall instead of four.
There was some close exciting Duals which made the tournament fun to work. One of the other officials requested to work the finals, so I said OK. I worked the 7th place match. Honestly, I think it is more difficult to call a seventh palace match than a first place match. The better the wrestlers are, the easier it is for me to predict what they are going to do next. This allows me more time to get into position to make my calls. the difference in the seventh place match and the first place match was like the grand canyon. I finished fairly quickly, and was able to watch a lot of the first place match, and observe all of the other officials.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Dealing with difficult people.
My schedule was a little lighter this week with a dual on Wednesday, and a tournament on Friday/Saturday. I took the opportunity for some preseason conditioning with my girls Soccer team. It was good to see the girls out working on their fitness in anticipation of the up coming season.
Wednesday was here and it was time for wrestling. I was the second official for a JV/V dual with White and Peachtree Ridge, at Peachtree Ridge. I thought the dual was starting at 5:00pm, but it was not scheduled til 6:00pm. Needles to say I was a little early. In order to expedite the match, we split the JV dual between two mats, so I only called about 9 matches. My matches were uneventful, but had great action. It is funny how you can be in a gym full of voices, and one will catch your attention. I could here a voice coaching from the middle of the stands, and knew it was one of my favorite coaches Gary Fisher. As soon as the match ended I pointed up to him, and he said good call mister official. t was good to see him.
Because of the way we split the JV matches, I was able watch the Varsity dual. Most of the matches were one sided, but some interesting situations arose. In one case one of the coaches went to the table for a conference, and in between matches, the official in charge asked me to get my rule book and show the coach where pressure against the throat was against the rules. I popped my book open to the right page, and quickly showed the coach that it was in fact listed under illegal holds and maneuvers.
There was another unusual situation. During a pinning situation, the defensive wrestler was pushing up towards the defensive wrestlers face. The official stopped the action, and gave the offensive wrestler an extra point for illegal hold. Normally in this situation you would old the call til the pinning situation comes to a conclusion. The official latter told me that he feared that the defensive wrestler was going to gouge the eyes of the offensive wrestler, so he stopped the action for safety. It was to bad that the offensive wrestler's pinning situation was eliminated, but it is hard to argue with an official considering safety first.
Friday was great. The tournament was at my home school, so i didn't even have to drive. I stayed in my classroom, did some paperwork, changed clothes, and walked down to the gym for the tournament. There are still a couple of wrestlers on Apalachee's squad who competed for me as their coach. I do not have a problem being objective in these situations, but I can understand how that would come into question. Out of necessity, I have even officiated my son's matches in the past. The biggest problem I have is how personal the kids take it if I call a penalty, or a fall on them. Non of my calls are personal for me. I am just trying to fallow the intent of the rules, and be as fair as possible.
When I am at work, I spend a lot of time dealing with difficult people. The students I teach have emotional, or behavioral problems that make it difficult for them to be successful in the standard educational settings. When I have a break i spend a lot of time with your standard High School age kids listening to their problems, concerns, and general DRAMA. The challenge of dealing with a difficult coach is a big so what to me. One of the coaches in this tournament is one of those coaches that I think a lot of officials do not want to cross paths with. I have a lot of respect for the coach, and made sure that my son got the chance to roll around with him while he was in High School. In one of my first matches of the tournament this coach was in the corner with one of his wrestlers on my mat. During the match his wrestle was attempting to tilt his opponent. It was close, but not quite to the 45 degree angle yet, so I was not awarding back points. He was coaching his wrestler, and noticed i did not award points for the tilt. He said that's not back points? Come on Mark, I am going to have to bring you a protractor tomorrow. After the match he said you aren't even going to warn me for that one, and I said no, actually I thought it was pretty funny.
One of the best matches I officiated all weekend long ended poorly. The action was fast paced, and both wrestlers worked hard. At the end of the match there was just a 1-0 score and both wrestlers were spent. Unfortunately the losing wrestler dropped the F bomb. I clearly heard it, and I know the table workers heard it as well. I made the unsportsmanlike call, and instructed the table workers to mark it on the bout sheet as a one point team deduction. Latter on i found out that the same wrestler had thrown his headgear at the end of a match for an unsportsmanlike call. That means that when he dropped the F bomb on my mat, he was disqualified from the event. The coach thanked me for making the call, and explained that he now had enough time to get the behaviors corrected, before it was too late.
I will close out my pre-Christmas events with a quartet of events at the same school. I will be at MillCreek for four days in a row calling Gwinnett County JV championships, a Middle School Dual Tournament, and the Walt Hennebaul open. I do not have any assignments for the remainder of the year, but I hope to be assigned to officiate Dixie nationals, and the minion Duals.
Wednesday was here and it was time for wrestling. I was the second official for a JV/V dual with White and Peachtree Ridge, at Peachtree Ridge. I thought the dual was starting at 5:00pm, but it was not scheduled til 6:00pm. Needles to say I was a little early. In order to expedite the match, we split the JV dual between two mats, so I only called about 9 matches. My matches were uneventful, but had great action. It is funny how you can be in a gym full of voices, and one will catch your attention. I could here a voice coaching from the middle of the stands, and knew it was one of my favorite coaches Gary Fisher. As soon as the match ended I pointed up to him, and he said good call mister official. t was good to see him.
Because of the way we split the JV matches, I was able watch the Varsity dual. Most of the matches were one sided, but some interesting situations arose. In one case one of the coaches went to the table for a conference, and in between matches, the official in charge asked me to get my rule book and show the coach where pressure against the throat was against the rules. I popped my book open to the right page, and quickly showed the coach that it was in fact listed under illegal holds and maneuvers.
There was another unusual situation. During a pinning situation, the defensive wrestler was pushing up towards the defensive wrestlers face. The official stopped the action, and gave the offensive wrestler an extra point for illegal hold. Normally in this situation you would old the call til the pinning situation comes to a conclusion. The official latter told me that he feared that the defensive wrestler was going to gouge the eyes of the offensive wrestler, so he stopped the action for safety. It was to bad that the offensive wrestler's pinning situation was eliminated, but it is hard to argue with an official considering safety first.
Friday was great. The tournament was at my home school, so i didn't even have to drive. I stayed in my classroom, did some paperwork, changed clothes, and walked down to the gym for the tournament. There are still a couple of wrestlers on Apalachee's squad who competed for me as their coach. I do not have a problem being objective in these situations, but I can understand how that would come into question. Out of necessity, I have even officiated my son's matches in the past. The biggest problem I have is how personal the kids take it if I call a penalty, or a fall on them. Non of my calls are personal for me. I am just trying to fallow the intent of the rules, and be as fair as possible.
When I am at work, I spend a lot of time dealing with difficult people. The students I teach have emotional, or behavioral problems that make it difficult for them to be successful in the standard educational settings. When I have a break i spend a lot of time with your standard High School age kids listening to their problems, concerns, and general DRAMA. The challenge of dealing with a difficult coach is a big so what to me. One of the coaches in this tournament is one of those coaches that I think a lot of officials do not want to cross paths with. I have a lot of respect for the coach, and made sure that my son got the chance to roll around with him while he was in High School. In one of my first matches of the tournament this coach was in the corner with one of his wrestlers on my mat. During the match his wrestle was attempting to tilt his opponent. It was close, but not quite to the 45 degree angle yet, so I was not awarding back points. He was coaching his wrestler, and noticed i did not award points for the tilt. He said that's not back points? Come on Mark, I am going to have to bring you a protractor tomorrow. After the match he said you aren't even going to warn me for that one, and I said no, actually I thought it was pretty funny.
One of the best matches I officiated all weekend long ended poorly. The action was fast paced, and both wrestlers worked hard. At the end of the match there was just a 1-0 score and both wrestlers were spent. Unfortunately the losing wrestler dropped the F bomb. I clearly heard it, and I know the table workers heard it as well. I made the unsportsmanlike call, and instructed the table workers to mark it on the bout sheet as a one point team deduction. Latter on i found out that the same wrestler had thrown his headgear at the end of a match for an unsportsmanlike call. That means that when he dropped the F bomb on my mat, he was disqualified from the event. The coach thanked me for making the call, and explained that he now had enough time to get the behaviors corrected, before it was too late.
I will close out my pre-Christmas events with a quartet of events at the same school. I will be at MillCreek for four days in a row calling Gwinnett County JV championships, a Middle School Dual Tournament, and the Walt Hennebaul open. I do not have any assignments for the remainder of the year, but I hope to be assigned to officiate Dixie nationals, and the minion Duals.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Caught red handed.
I am a nerd at heart. I enjoy studying, making A's and am what ever the opposite of a procrastinator is when it comes to school/work related projects. Notice I never said I was smart, I only implied that I tried hard. I get a kick out of debating academics, and rules with other studious people.
I had three assignments this week. Salem for a tri with Walnut grove, and Cedar Shoals. Social Circle for a MS, JV, and Varsity dual with Apalachee, And the Forstyh County JV, and Varsity championships.
Salem had both JV and Varsity. I had the Varsity mat, and managed to call a tri meet in two hours. There were several pins, and forfeits. The girls working the tables were rookies when we started, and pros by the time we finished.
Next was Social Circle. This is where I got caught red handed. What a great gym for a Dual tournament. We were in the auxiliary gym. It had a stage on one end, two mats in the middle, and bleachers on the far side. It was loud and obnoxious, with a close dual to boot. The highlight of the duals was the 189 pound match. Apalachee's tall red headed freshman was wrestling social Circles short black muscular upperclassman. It was a back and forth match that ended up going to overtime. The conditioning of the Apalachee wrestler was suspect, and he had a couple of injury time outs to recover. The wrestlers went scoreless in the tie breaker, so it advanced to the two thirty second periods. The Apalachee wrestler rode out the Social Circle wrestler in the first thirty, and got an escape in the second thirty to win. After the dual I went to talk to some of the parents. One of the more studious parents busted me on my mistake during the dual. Remember I said that the Apalachee wrestler took two injury time outs. I was supposed to give the Social Circle wrestler choice of position on the restart. BUSTED. fortunately it would have only been for four seconds, and was not likely to effect the outcome of the match, but it was a mistake non the less.
The tournament at Lambert was fun. We did what we could to keep the tournament moving, but kept running into the thirty minute rule. We ended up with a good bit of down time. Fortunately I had great company for the down time. Billy Saville, a true living legend when it comes to officials, was the head official of the tournament. He gave me an entertaining history legend of Georgia wrestling. Two people out of the crowd even came over to tell him that they had officiated their matches when they were in High School. It is strange how you do not respect people older than yourself, until you start getting older yourself.
I will be taking the closed book test Sunday. I am overly prepared, just the way I like it. I may even stop by Collins Hill before hand to watch some middle School duals.
Next week I will be at Peachtree Ridge on Wednesday, Apalachee on Friday, and Saturday, followed by Loganville on Sunday for some Middle School Duals.
I had three assignments this week. Salem for a tri with Walnut grove, and Cedar Shoals. Social Circle for a MS, JV, and Varsity dual with Apalachee, And the Forstyh County JV, and Varsity championships.
Salem had both JV and Varsity. I had the Varsity mat, and managed to call a tri meet in two hours. There were several pins, and forfeits. The girls working the tables were rookies when we started, and pros by the time we finished.
Next was Social Circle. This is where I got caught red handed. What a great gym for a Dual tournament. We were in the auxiliary gym. It had a stage on one end, two mats in the middle, and bleachers on the far side. It was loud and obnoxious, with a close dual to boot. The highlight of the duals was the 189 pound match. Apalachee's tall red headed freshman was wrestling social Circles short black muscular upperclassman. It was a back and forth match that ended up going to overtime. The conditioning of the Apalachee wrestler was suspect, and he had a couple of injury time outs to recover. The wrestlers went scoreless in the tie breaker, so it advanced to the two thirty second periods. The Apalachee wrestler rode out the Social Circle wrestler in the first thirty, and got an escape in the second thirty to win. After the dual I went to talk to some of the parents. One of the more studious parents busted me on my mistake during the dual. Remember I said that the Apalachee wrestler took two injury time outs. I was supposed to give the Social Circle wrestler choice of position on the restart. BUSTED. fortunately it would have only been for four seconds, and was not likely to effect the outcome of the match, but it was a mistake non the less.
The tournament at Lambert was fun. We did what we could to keep the tournament moving, but kept running into the thirty minute rule. We ended up with a good bit of down time. Fortunately I had great company for the down time. Billy Saville, a true living legend when it comes to officials, was the head official of the tournament. He gave me an entertaining history legend of Georgia wrestling. Two people out of the crowd even came over to tell him that they had officiated their matches when they were in High School. It is strange how you do not respect people older than yourself, until you start getting older yourself.
I will be taking the closed book test Sunday. I am overly prepared, just the way I like it. I may even stop by Collins Hill before hand to watch some middle School duals.
Next week I will be at Peachtree Ridge on Wednesday, Apalachee on Friday, and Saturday, followed by Loganville on Sunday for some Middle School Duals.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
