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.