Christmas break.

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.