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Officials as wrestlers


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My wife asked me this while watching the Big 10's and I did not know the answer... Are there any officals who where really good wrestlers in high school/ college (semi-state/state)?  I assumed the answer was yes, but I didn't know off of the top of my head, so does anyone know the answer?

Edited by ENoblewrestling
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Eric McGill has risen through the ranks of the NCAA officiating. He has done D3's and D2's while doing ACC conference matches the past few years. He is getting close to being at the NCAAs and you'll likely see him there in the near future.

 

He got his break when he was reffing IHPO and a college coach put him in touch with some higher ups in the reffing world.

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Steve Anslinger was a state qualifier. Great official, great coach great with little kids, and older kids as well. Steve refs high school and grade school levels. Steve will ref with the same professionalism at any level but will occasionally crack when he's got really young wrestlers, he takes the necessary time to show proper starting positions and has a little fun with the little ones. He does NOT take any disrespect of any kind and I think that's pretty cool. If Steve isn't already in the HOF he is well on his way.

Edited by Ahawkeye
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From the officials from this weekend (Big 10s):

Mike Chase was a 2x ACC Champ at University of North Carolina

Angel Rivera wrestled DII in New England area.

Jason Wedgbury wrestled at Northern Iowa 2x National Qualifier

Jeron Quincy was a DII National Runner Up at University of Central Missouri

Curt Frost was a couple time state qualifier in Iowa

Matt Sorochinsky was an Ohio (I believe) state champ and a DIII Runner Up at Ithaca College.

 

These are just the ones I know.

 

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I know I'm going to miss some very notable guys in this response, however here goes my list anyway.

 

International level: Alexander Medved (USSR) was a several time World & Olympic Champion back in the late 1960's and early 1970's who rose to be one of the elite international officials in the world.

 

NCAA: Wade Schalles (Clarion) and Chuck Yagla (Iowa) were NCAA champions before they became elite college officials. Eric McGill (Munster) is well on his way to making this NCAA list down the road.

 

IHSAA: Indiana State Finalists, Don Hinds, Larry McMillen, Mike Faulkner, Henry Wilk, and Steve Hunter all wrestled for a prep State Championship before donning their striped shirts and officiating at multiple IHSAA State Finals.

 

Please feel free to add your own names to this list...as I am certain to have omitted several deserving of being recognized here.

Edited by Coach Wadkins
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Kory Cavanaugh (SQ/4th/6th) started officiating this year. The sport provided him a Wabash degree and valuable life lessons and memories. It was important he gave back and with a dearth of officials it seemed like the best way to do so.


Special thanks to @cbarnettfor guidance and getting things rolling for him and to Henry Wilk,  Dave Coburn et al for mentoring etc. 

 

i hope more recent grads consider staying involved in whatever way possible. 

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We need to seriously evaluate the way that our Officials in Indiana move up through the ranks, not just in wrestling but across all sports. I say this because it was explained to me that our system is implemented by the IHSAA. For those that are not aware of our system, you have to have "x" amounts of tournaments at each level before you can move on to the next. I think in a time that we are being told our Officials are getting older and more scarce, that we start to reward our better young Officials with ascending through our tournament series more quickly. I mean what is the point of rating a guy a "semi-state" level if he can not even officiate one? Oh, and while I am on my soapbox here, we should also have a minimum number of slots that are reserved in which we vote the best officials in the State. How crazy is it some of the guys we consider the best have to sit out every two years, I think this is the time frame, someone correct me if I am wrong. If we want our best wrestlers there, then we should want our best Officials there as well. In our current system, it is possible that you can reach an NCAA Championships faster than you can our IHSAA State Finals.

 

I am not saying to blow the whole system up, there are pros and cons, as such with anything. However, we should really look into tweaking this system, so we can reward these younger up and coming stud Officials that we are talking about in this thread.

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2 hours ago, XCard said:

We need to seriously evaluate the way that our Officials in Indiana move up through the ranks, not just in wrestling but across all sports. I say this because it was explained to me that our system is implemented by the IHSAA. For those that are not aware of our system, you have to have "x" amounts of tournaments at each level before you can move on to the next. I think in a time that we are being told our Officials are getting older and more scarce, that we start to reward our better young Officials with ascending through our tournament series more quickly. I mean what is the point of rating a guy a "semi-state" level if he can not even officiate one? Oh, and while I am on my soapbox here, we should also have a minimum number of slots that are reserved in which we vote the best officials in the State. How crazy is it some of the guys we consider the best have to sit out every two years, I think this is the time frame, someone correct me if I am wrong. If we want our best wrestlers there, then we should want our best Officials there as well. In our current system, it is possible that you can reach an NCAA Championships faster than you can our IHSAA State Finals.

 

I am not saying to blow the whole system up, there are pros and cons, as such with anything. However, we should really look into tweaking this system, so we can reward these younger up and coming stud Officials that we are talking about in this thread.

I couldn't agree more on this. I am not sure why we would not want our top officials at the state finals each year. It is frustrating to see some of our best guys in suites or sitting in the stands because of the current rules we have in place. Like you stated if we use ratings voted on by our coaches why does it really matter how long they have been an official, example if you have a 2nd year official but he is being rated by the coaches to do a semi-state or state finals then let them do it!

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I don't know his mat accomplishments as much as his brother's, but I do want to say I was very, very happy to see Ray Pettit from Hammond ref at state this year.  He wrestled under Karl Deak at Hammond High and has been a spot-on official at every event I was at when coaching.  He is as much of a kind gentleman as he is a great ref.

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On 3/10/2022 at 7:35 PM, busstogate said:

I don't know his mat accomplishments as much as his brother's, but I do want to say I was very, very happy to see Ray Pettit from Hammond ref at state this year.  He wrestled under Karl Deak at Hammond High and has been a spot-on official at every event I was at when coaching.  He is as much of a kind gentleman as he is a great ref.

Is his brother Rob?
 

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