I'm not sure who the official was, but during one of the finals matches at 321A he made a terrible stalling call. The coach questioned the ruling and after conferring with the assistant ref he overturned his own call.

I wish this happened more often. It takes more guts to overturn a call when you know you're wrong than it does to stick by your guns and pretend you were right. These kids work their butts off all year, and in my opinion a fair outcome is more important than an officials ego.

Like I said, I didn't know the official, but thank you for taking the road less traveled. Hopefully more follow your lead.

It was during the 135 match. Glad to see it overturned as well.

I think that was Nigel Isom, who in my opinion is a very good referee

It certainly was unusual, and Nigel is a very good official. It appeared the stall call was for riding an ankle jack for too long. Dylan, do you know the details of why the coach and assistant referee felt otherwise? Regardless, it is nice to see the process work.

Dylan, I agree with you 100%, that was a terrible call and glad to see it was corrected. I watched it again yesterday and it appears to me that the top man is the one trying to improve his position while the bottom man was just holding on waiting for a stalemate. Good job by the assistant referee to correct the call.

Terrell was on top and Lambotte had locked up around one of Terrells legs. Terrell had stretched Lambotte out and was attempting to get back behind him by grabbing the ankle and circling behind. Lambotte was stretched out on his belly holding on to Terrell's leg and waiting for Terrell to make a mistake so he could improve. Terrell was not using the ankle as a stall tactic, but rather to improve his position and secure control. I assume this is what Coach Johnson argued and the official changed the call to the correct call of stalemate.

Just thought I'd clear the air regarding this situation, and thank coach Campbell for his comments.

It was indeed me that was officiating the 135 lbs finals match at 3-2-1A State. I will do my best to explain what happened and why I changed that call. From where I was standing and observing the action taking place I knew the Norton wrestler was in the advantage position in control. At a certain point in time I observed him pinning the Rossville wrestler's heel to his buttocks and at that point I began my silent 5 count which is one of the only defined areas in the wrestling rule book where a sitution is timed. Specifically the rule states that is is stalling when "the wrestler in the advantage position holds the heel of his opponent to the buttocks for more than 5 seconds when broken down on the mat"

Almost simultaneously prior to me blowing my whistle, my assistant had walked over behind me and stated that he thought a stalemate was in order. I threw up the stalling call based upon what I had been looking at in that entire situation (not knowing some important information at the moment). At that point Coach Johnson walked over to the table, and was VERY calm, very pleasant, and inquired as to why I had given his wrestler a stalling call when his opponent had both arms around his wrestlers leg in the front and was unable to move around behing and was simply using the leg pin to try to come back around. I told him that I had not seen that and that my call was based on the heel pin I had been observing. Coach Johnson then asked if I would check with my assistant about what he saw, and of course I said "absolutly".

At that point I had a conference with my assistant, and asked him what he saw. He told me that he had saw the leg lock in front and because of that a stalemate was what he had been thinking. As I had not seen the leg lock during the time that that situation was occuring this was new information for me and had I seen it, the stalling call would have never have been given. Based on what Ron had told me, it became obvious that the correct call should have been a stalemate to which I completely agreed, which is why I changed the call.

As funny as it seems, I believe that had this situation happened in a regular season tournament where I was working by myself, I may have moved around to the other side and actually seen the leg lock in front. As I had the assistant on the other side and didn't move to my left to see it which is why the initial call was made.

This very situation demonstrates how effective having an assistant referee to help you can be, not only in seeing things you may not have otherwise seen, but also to offer up a 2nd opinion. It also demonstrates how having a coach request a conference not about a judgement call but about a misapplication can most certainly result in a correct call being made, especially when that coach is respectful and level headed.

I am most thankful to Ron for being my assistant in that match and letting me know about the lock around the leg so that I could change the call appropriately. I am also thankful to Coach Johnson for approaching the table in the correct manner. And even thankful to Coach Brecheisen whom I explained the change to and indicated that he also understood why it happened. My job as an official is to make sure that the right call gets made, and in this situation I think once all information was properly presented that the correct call was a stalemate and a reversal of the call was needed. While I would prefer to get the call right in the first place which I think I do 99.9% of the time, I would never have a problem correcting a situation if it needed to be, no matter how many boos it might cause, because that is what is right for the sport and the wrestlers involved.

Outstanding job Nigel!

I thought it took some stones to change the call to the correct call in the middle of a state finals match. Great job in getting the correct call made even if it took a little time to sort things out.

Nigel, that was amazing! To correct, and make the accurate call in the state finals, and to handle it without getting rattled was impressive!
But:
What you did at regionals was just as impressive!
While seated in the referree's chairs during the finals you were paying attention when an upset fan came running out of the stands. You stopped the fan, and calmed him preventing what could have been a very bad situation. People that were not paying attention probably never even noticed. 2 for 2 my friend. Great Job!
Harry

Making it right no matter how it makes you look.

Nice work Nigel.

how dare you nigel! you broke the code! i mean according to cokeley you will have men dressed in black to come and erase your memory or something.

just kiddin' NICE JOB, i actually tend to agree with will, that we need some training/ evaluation system. i don't usually agree with his delivery. lol.

i especially didn't agree with the evaluation that he gave me. I'M NOT THAT SCARY LOOKING WILL!!

Nigel, a right call? We do need an evaluation system...

Nice job Nigel, been a day or two since I've seen you officiate.

Nigel,

I have seen you from the time you were a competitor to a younger official who has done nothing but improve in your short time as an official. Congratulations, I thought the whole 321A group of officials did an outstanding job. Thanks.

Nigel is a class act! He is a role model for younger officials and always on his game! Great attitude and not a suprise for all of his accomadations! He should be in charge of all refs within the state!

Nigel,

Tell your relatives to quit posting on here.

Nigel is certainly one of the best in the business!

I thought it was awesome and Troy and I commented on the air...sort of a "hats off to the officials". Good job all weekend, Nigel!

The quote on the KSHSAA wrestling site sums it all up!!
"Good officials do what they can, the best officials do what must be done" Great job Nigel!!