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.