I am glad to see that there are several people that agree on this topic. I want to make it clear to Nigel, I am not whinning. My son lost his 1st match because of the refs ability to perform his job as specified. My son in return lost his 2nd match legitimately, he just simply did not wrestle like he should have. The 1st match he was flat out screwed out of the match. I will say I do not know if it was because my son had been in the same wrestling program as he had been in the past or if he just did not like my son. I only know that he was wrong, he knew it and when another official confronted him on the mat he seemed to not care. He told me I know just as many people as you do and it will not change my decision. I will also say that this was the 1st ref I had any question about all year. I also agree that when it comes to Sub, Districts and State the refs should be picked by a board not from amatuers.

Slap, point of clarification for you, You are not required to have an arm for a figure four to the head in a pinning combination. A scissors to the head is illegal with or without an arm period, so IF the referee said it was a figure four it was perfectly legal unless his leg slipped down into a scissors.

Wrestling2005, I don't know what Districts you were at this year, but I do know that Mike Brown who is the assistant director and a fellow referee did all the hiring for the District 1 tournament this year, so I wouldn't exactly call him an Amatuers. As far as referees for state goes, I know Lance Engel in District III sends out a form to all the clubs and asks them to rank officials from 1-10 and then he averages them and the top 5 he sends to Greg Grater. So at least in DIII the refs for state are chosen by the clubs who actually sent the forms back which from what I understand a number of them didn't this year.

In District 4 each club picks 6 referees and sends them into Steve Woody and who ever has the most votes go on. And I know we didn't pick any slouches or questionable referees. Because we want the best at state.

some refs are horrible and dont deserve sympathy. like one time i got only 1 point for a pederson. that cost me the match too.

Unfortunately Dist 2 but like I said not all refs are bad just a hand full. I did not say all refs are amatuers just a few and I believe that only the top refs should be at the three most important tournaments of the year.