Itinerary.
Thursday 10/28
6:45 pm load bus at TWA.
Friday 10/29
9:45am debuss at Hotel in Cedar Rapids Iowa.
Two workouts for overweight wrestlers.
4:00pm back on the bus to go to the unidome, and workout.
5:00pm pick up weigh-in cards and prestage for weigh-ins. I worked weigh-ins till 7:45 and was released by the head official.
8:00pm Destruction of a local Chinese buffet.
10:30 room checks
11:00 lights out
12:00 sleep on floor ( Beds are too small, and Moistner is a cuddler)
Saturday 10/30
6:15am Wake up call.
7:15am back on the bus to the Unidome
9:00am-9:00pm officiate.
10:00pm Applebees.
11:30pm bed checks
Sunday 10/31
12:00 lights out check
1:00am bed to myself
4:15am Wake up call
5:00am back on the bus
10:00pm back at TWA.
The reason I say it was like Groundhog's day is because every time I woke up, I was on a bus.
I know my blog is about Officiating, but I want to start off by saying that the group that went on this trip did a great job. There were no discipline problems on the bus, or at the hotel, and everyone wrestled hard. I officiated three matches with a Georgia wrestler in it, but did not get to see much of them wrestle unfortunately. After I officiated a few finals, I got a break, and watched Marshawn wrestle his consi-finals match. He wrestled very tough e ven though he was obviously worn down by the grind of the entire trip. Marshawn beat a talented wrestler to bring home 3rd.
On to officiating. When I work a National tournament I always compare them to Fargo. It relay isn't fair because Fargo is the most organized event I have ever been to. Unlike Fargo we did not have any rules meetings, but we did discuss the rules that were pertinent to this competition. No hair rule, no facial hair rule enforced, and abbreviated overtime. Match times were also cut short.
We were not assigned to mats. The head official just told us to form teams. I mdid not mind rotating to the younger age groups, but they had split mats, and I was not comfortable working in such a closed in space. I went to a mat that was close to the split mat so that even if I had to work the split mat, I would at least get to rotate off. I ended up with a 5 man team covering 4 mats. We had High School , and Middle School matches on our mats.
There are plenty of ways to tell if you are doing a good job as an official. One of them is a lack of requests for meetings. I made it till 2:00pm before I was called to the table for anything, so I had a great morning. There were great scrambles on my mat all day long. The scrambling is an area where I could tell a difference between the wrestling I normally see in the Southeast. The scrambles were much longer, and great to officiate. I had a good scramble on my mat, saw control beyond reaction time, called the takedown, and the opponent immediately got the reversal. I probably could have waived off the tekedown, but I was confident in my call. There was no time out called, and the match continued. At the end of the match I was approached, and my call was questioned. I signaled coaches misconduct, and gave the coach his warning. He said I don't care and continued to argue the call. I looked down and saw that he did not have a coaches band, and realized why he did not care that he had been warned. I stopped talking to him and walked away. In another match the defensive wrestler was almost clear on an escape so the offensive wrestler lifted him, and drove him out of bounds. In my mind I had to decide to make a call or not. These decisions happen all day long as you are officiating, and something that gets easier with experience. It was active aggressive wrestling, and would have lead to back points if it had have been in the center of the mat, so I did not call stalling. The offensive wrestler did have the option to complete the maneuver in bounds, but choose to drive straight out. He had forced the wrestler out of bounds to prevent a dangerous situation. Forcing a wrestler out to avoid scoring is clearly outlined as a technical violation, so that is the call I made. At this point the wrestler made a comment, and I gave him a freebie. I warned him to stop talking. On a restart, the same wrestler jumped before I blew the whistle. I gave the caution for false start, and he argued the call. I called unsportsmanlike for 1 point and continued the match. Latter in the match he got another false start, and argued the call. I called caution for false start, and 1 point for unsportsmanlike. He false started again, and I cautioned him, awarded one point for the third false start, and he argued the call again. This third unsportsmanlike call got him a 2 point penalty, and he argued again which disqualified him from the match. I took the time to explain to his dad that it did not disqualify him from the tournament, just the match. The wrestler came back to the mat and said you suck, but I choose to ignore it so that he could wrestle his next match. That was a mistake on my part. Letting him stay at the tournament was a disservice to all of the people at the tournament that were putting there hearts on the line and behaving with good sportsmanship. Instead of reprimanding his wrestler, the dad came over to say something to me. I noticed the lack of a coaches band again, and asked him to leave the area. The only other close call that could have gone either way. The defensive wrestler was coming up, turned and separated from the offensive wrestler. The offensive wrestler doubled him out of bounds. I called one escape. The coach asked if I had noticed the double leg, and I told him it was beyond reaction time, and the conversation ended. It ended up going to overtime, and the offensive wrestler won. There was no question about his takedown in overtime, and I was glad. Did I mention that the wrestler was Dallas Brown, and the coach was Sean Moistner. I would not have heard the end of it if the match would have come down to a judgment call.
I called several consolation finals, and final matches, and saw some great wrestling. The tournament was tough, competitive, and a great experience for the wrestlers who attended. The newer, chaperons, and Dads that came appreciated the trip as well. The Unidome was a great place for the tournament with natural light filtering in, great seating, and unobstructed views.
As an official it was a challenging tournament. We had long stretches on the mat without a break, and when you did have a break there was almost never food available. Fortunately, I planned on the lack of ability to get food and packed a large bag of p nut M&Ms. Their were volunteers as well as college wrestlers helping man the tables, and they did a great job. Ethan B. was there working, and told me his coach wants him at 165. Welcome to college Ethan.
Training continues this weekend at Collins Hill where my group will be training at the preseason USA tournament. We will have a statewide officials meeting at 3:00pm Sunday at Holly Innocence. I am looking forward to both.
