This is like walking into a bar fight with a smile on your face after its been going on for 15 minutes and everybody is all worked up.

These are separate points of interest to me, in no particular order.

1. I want to start at the beginning. I'm one of the officials (not THE offical) that worked the North matches. I heard about this situation at lunch shortly after it happened, it seemed pretty straight-forward to me at the time, Wrestler A called Wrestler B a very bad name and then shortly thereafter Wrestler A smacked him upside the head and that was pretty much the end of the match. Then I learned the wrestler that got tossed was 30-0 so I guessed there would be some questions about it. I'm a good guesser. And that's all I'm saying about that topic.

2. This forum is an "open mike." But Kansas registered officials and coaches are, by their agreement with the state association, governed by a Code of Ethics which prohibits public criticism of officials, etc. So if you are an official or coach and you use this forum as a sounding board to express your view on whether an official "blew" a call, you should reread the code, think about it, and make a choice. It's not "wrong" to criticize an official, and you can talk in private, but it is unethical (that's by "rule" not because I say so) to do so in public. It's bad for the sport.

3. Officials make mistakes. Watch the upcoming Super Bowl and you will see what I mean. And those guys are highly paid, professionally trained, experienced, have lots of help, and can use replay. Not one Kansas official I've ever met would deny it.

4. Any evaluation system would have its flaws. Right now, coaches seem to be the evaluators. They hold the cards. Not just because they vote on post-season assignments, but because they can tell the assignors who they want, or don't want, at their tournaments. I have, over the years, seen this happen. A coach once thought I should have awarded his wrestler near fall points and the next year I was not invited back to his tournament. So there are consequences even if the coach was wrong. No appeal for officials either. And there is a "self-governing" system. The assignors learn who can handle the tough matches and who come up short. It's like the army, you don't get promoted to sargeant unless you can handle being a private.

5. In my opinion, this area of the state is blessed with a strong core of well-respected, dedicated, and knowledgeable officials. I don't count myself in their ranks, but I have been in their company enough to know that their only desire is to make the right calls. And when they are together they are talking wrestling, officiating, and tough calls. And they are all good people. Except for Bob Ford.

6. It's not just coaches and wrestlers that put in time. On a typical Saturday an official will spend 8+ hours on the mat in constant action. My guess is that in a relatively few years an official would log more hours on a mat than any high school wrestler did during his four years in school. Everybody involved in wrestling puts in time. I don't know that, as a "money maker," the pay is worth it for either coaches or officials. JV officials didn't get a raise for about 10 years in a row.

7. Wrestling, as a high school sport, has some issues. I've seen the crowds dwindle to the point where I feel bad for the wrestlers. I'm not sure some even have a parent in the stands. Rarely see cheerleaders. It's a tough sport to be involved in as a kid. Lots of "easier" options. It's great if you are a four year letter winner, 34-0, and it's your life. That's the top 1% but there's a whole lot of kids that don't enjoy that success. At the same time, "sportsmanship" seems to be on the decline. Mixed martial arts, profanity, disrespect, and general "bad" attitude problems are increasing. Fans and parent incidents, including violence, are reported regularly. And as we see too often, officials are brow beaten for a "bad" call even when that call was correct. Example, last weekend a dad was filming near matside and when his kid got turned with a perfectly legal figure-four of the head he was screaming "that's illegal, that's a scissors, you've got to stop that!!"

8. It is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit and keep good coaches and officials. I have seen almost a 100% turnover in coaches in the past 15 years. It is becoming more difficult to find a sufficient number of qualified officials for regionals each year.

9. And lastly, I wish I'd taken a few more college courses so I could figure out why so many people seem to think it is OK to launch a nasty, personal, hateful, and ugly attack over a topic that is supposed to be "for sport." I was thinking about posting on this forum on the way home tonight from work while listening to "talk radio" and thought how similar some of the rabid caller's comments were to what often goes on here....