thebestthatneverwas

Years ago I used to officiate free style, and if I remember if in the first period it ended 0-0 and the official hadn't called stalling he was berated. This helped me call stalling. I heard on here that the official should stay out of big matches and not call stalling because it could decide the match. If you don't call stalling and the wrestler winning, can run all over the mat and be allowed to win, so now we the official have decided the match by not calling stalling. The official gets rated by coaches, who either like stalling being called and if this is the case it is because they coach their wrestlers to be offensive and aggressive, so the official that calls stalling will get a higher vote from them. Now on the other hand the coach who's wrestlers aren't coached to be aggressive and coaches his wrestlers to play the edge and bail out of bounds when ever they are in jeopardy of being scored on, gets this official that calls stalling and makes the wrestlers use the center of the mat, will get a lower vote from this coach. These votes will decide how far into the tournament series the official works. The rule book states that it is the job of the official to eliminate stalling from the sport of wrestling, and if he does this he will be calling stalling and not be worried if this next stalling call is going mean a lower vote than if he were to just eat his whistle and allow one the wrestlers to play the edge, not shoot on his feet, lay on the bottom. How about there being a system that also penalizes the official that doesn't call stalling. On here I read how the 11-10 match was great, and it is. but the next time you watch a match and it goes 0-0 for six minutes and ask yourself how this could happen with no stalling. It's not to say that if these two wrestlers really went at it then no stalling needs to be called, but that doesn't happen very often. The good programs want stalling called and weaker ones don't

Plain and simple NO, he can not.

What ever happened to the white haired gentleman from Chesterton used to see him everywhere but haven't seen him in a while?

We the officials could have called any number of unsportsmanlike penalties for having the singlet straps down yesterday, it has gotten ridiculous with these kids dropping their straps. It all comes from freestyle, and you hate to see it happen, but if these kids don't like their singlets go out for swimming! ;D I gave a few wrestlers a warning, but it is getting ridiculous how many times it is happening. :'( You don't want to see it happen but hopefully they will learn now and not in the sectional, regional or semi state. We don't go looking for it but if it happens in front of us we have to call it. Live and Learn. ???

The General and his posey will be in attendance. Chad Ochosinko!!! LOL.

I have heard Nick sing in a keroke bar and he better keep his day job, great kid!!! 8)

Grissom vs Discovery Middle schools that feed into Penn, stands were packed, they hired two officials to do the varsity, from the time the first two wrestlers shook hands, until the last match you couldn't hear the officials whistle or the horn. This was just the other night, I know it's only junior high, but it was as intense as alot of matches I have done in the past and the wrestling was as good or better than some of the varsity matches I have done. 8)

I played jr high football and basketball, but never really caught the coaches eye. they always watched the bigger guys and the faster guys, one day I came home and told my dad this one kid who was 6" taller and 50lbs heavier had his dad talk to the coach, and my dad aksed me if I wanted him to go talk to the coach? And I told him if he did I would quit. My brother weighed 77lbs his freshman year in high school and became the captain of the wrestling team his senior year. I came in as freshman that same year made the freshman team wrestled a couple of varsity matches then b-team my sophmore year and a few more varsity mathes, my junior and senior years was varsity. Wrestled in college took a class in phys ed and they made us take a referee's test in the sport of our choice, I took the wrestling test in 1971-71 got into officiating , worked 11 state finals, 30 something semi states, 30 something regionals and 30 something sectionals. Got inducted into the Indiana High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2001, was given the outstanding officials award at the State finals in 1999 . This is may 38th year as an official and have heard people say they have given some much to the sport of wrestling, I can't help but think wresting has given me more than I can ever give to it. All of you have had to pay to get into events where I have been in the ***potty mouth***, with the best seat in the house, and even though it wasn't much got paid in the process. Thats my story and I am sticking to it!!!!

Y2 looks more like the Rain man, than Ben Afleck , and after watching the monkey taking a golden shower , you of all people should never ask me to keep it clean again.

I know things are alittle slow on here, but I can't beleive ;D one, that someone is posting about girls basketball on a wrestling web site and :-* two, that Y2 is commenting on it also. ??? Mabe this guy the coach you are talking about could get together with Geno Areamo or how ever you spell his name and they could compare what make up they prefer for big games.

They charge you $9.00 so they can pay us officials $.25 a mile to drive to New Castle, Evensville, Ft Wayne or Merrilville, so you do the math, $.25 a mile and gas is $2.50 a gallon times 318 miles round trip. ??? I must be nuts, but the kids and the wreslting make it alittle less painful to swallow. Oh yea and eating lunch standing in a corner holding your plate because there is no place to sit down or time to eat between rounds. :'( Hotel room $79.00 out of pocket expenses sharing your locker room with other wrestlers, the experience is priceless!!! You do the math. 8)

Da Rat is Da Dude in my book 8)

After a ear hole slap to the Head Gear, is called unecessary roughness. It aint Figure Skating!!!! :-X

A few years back at the Triacof Invitational, I was on anothe mat and Portage was wrewstling Indianapolis Cathedral, in one of the last matches of the night. The coaches were Ed Pendowski vs Lance Drama Rhodes, and it was just short of a brawl, anyone who has taken part in the Triacof knows what I mean. But I had just finished up on the mat next to they're mat and was just sitting and watching the last few matches between these two schools. And it was getting uglier as each match went by, but at about 189 the Portage wrestler was cranking on a wisier and I saw him make a fist and let it fly, now we officials had been on the mat from about 9:00 am and this was 10:30 or 11:00 pm so anyway the official was Andy Mihail and Lance yells out he through a punch and Andy replyied yea but he didn't land it. And Portage went on the win the match, so Portage took first and Cathedral got second, but Lance droped the second place trophy on the mat and left it bent and broken. The story goes that coach Wadkins use scotch tape to repair the damage done to the trophy and shipped it down to Cathedral and, sent a retraction to the Indianapolis news paper because Lance had put in the paper that they had won the Triacof not come in second. And that is stuff Legends are built on.

If your under shorts are smiling back at you from both sides it's time to wash'em :-X

8)Lou Holtz once said, Pain is Weakness leaving the body.

Waltharris, we need to party my freind, about ten to fifteen years ago I was working a super dual, and we got done early, so I knew a couple of our guys were doing a super dual at another high school in South Bend. So I thought I would stop by and see how they were doing. The one official just like Walt discribed came from another state and had been an official in Illionis, I had asked him if he had worked any state tournaments over there, and he said several. Now this is before any of us had seen him work. If he worked any state tournaments in Illionis is was special Olimpics not high school. This guy was also a chain smoker and over weight. As I am pulling into the parking lot I see a ambulance by the doors leading to the gym, so as I get in the door they are leading this guy out on a stretcher, and he is complaining he has chest pains and this other official is yelling at him, and I think partly because he is thinking he is going to have to do this guys matches as well as his own. Anyway he is yelling chest pains HELL have another F-ing cigerette, your not having a F-ing heart attack . And that was the last time any of us ever saw this guy, maybe he moved to another state to build his resume.

Thats right he left his brain with someones pierst nipples, only he and I will know what that is about, and onoy he looks good in a purple tuxido. Is it wrong? :

If your in a bar don't mess with anyone who has calliflower ear.

Years ago my wife asked me to take her and my daughters, and friends of ours and they're two daughters to a minor league baseball game for 4th of July fireworks. So she told me I should get tickets ahead of time, but I didn't and we show up and it's a sell out. This guy I know who helps coach wrestling at Mishawak at the time is working security for the ball park and sees me standing in line and asked me how I am doing, and I proceed to tell him I brought all of these people to this game and don't have any tickets, so he lowers the rope and takes us out beyond the wall in center field and tells me if anyone says anything to tell them he said we could sit there. I didn't tell you he also is a professional wrestler named Brian the Brain Costello, so the game goes on, and later they always have a bunch of yougsters come out and run the bases against the mascot, name Covey. So all of these kids are running with Covey, and usually they always beat Covey to home plate and crowd cheers. But on this night Covey is knocking the kids down tripping them as they round third coming for home, and the crowd is booing Covey because he never wins. So just before Covey reaches home plate this figure comes out of the home teams dugout and get to Covey just before he reaches home plate, and high crotches him and slams him to the ground, and all of the kids pass this carnage and touch home plate and everyone stands and cheers. And the two little girls that are with my little girls turn and look at me and say is that Hulk Hogan? And my two daughters turn and say no, thats my daddies friend, and all four went WOW!!!

At a tournament earlier this year I had a wrestler come out and I handed him the ankle band, and he said what do I do with this? This was in January not at the begining of the season, now I figure this guy is not going to far well against his opponent, but he almost got the take down before being put on his back and getting pinned. Years ago a fellow official comes off the mat laughing, and myself and the other officials ask whats so funny? And he say's, this kind of soft looking kid comes out grabs his ankle band, and bends over to put it on and sees his opponent coming out, who is a well put together wrestler, and he looks at Tom Condon and says, I don't like the looks of this, and Tom gently slapped the mat to save this young man from any undue pain and suffering.

I was working the Lake Station Super dual ten to fifteen years ago, and I had this kid who made Napolion Dinamite look like Charles Atlas, and all this kid did was bob up and down and slap the mat. That was his offense, and his team mates are yelling shoot Julio shoot, and I am talking to my self just prior to hitting him for stalling, hell this kid probly has shot in the whole month of December. ;D So I get assinghed to the Crown Point individual regionals, and I know there is a law of averages, but I do a few matches and of all the odds in the world sure enough, here comes this Julio kid, and again he shakes hands and proceeds to stand there and bob up and down and slap the mat, I can tell he has been working on his take downs for the past two months. And again his team mates are yelling shoot Julio shoot, to which all he does is bob up and down and slap the mat, to which all I did was hit him for stalling. His day was over before it got started, and I can still hear thoughs cries for him to shoot, and I have ten dollars that say's he still hasn't taken a shot, how he ever got out of a sectional is beyond me. ???

A wrestler shakes his opponents hand, I blow the whistle and he gets pinned, and this a varstiy match. He gets up and goes back the color line he started on, and I tell him to remove his ankle band, and he looks at me and says in practice we go the best out of three, I swear to god he did. ;D Same tournament and this is why the Polish get the bad rap they do, this official aka Komo, is weighing in wrestlers on a scale next to me, and I hear him tell this kid he is 8 lbs. over, now this is back when you had an hour to run or what ever, we are weighing the wrestlers in on the pool deck of this high school, so this kid takes off running for the remainder of the hour. I tell this young man he has a couple of minutes to step on the scale, and he dries off and comes to my scale and I ask him what weight class? He tells me and I set the bar, and he steps on and it doesn't move, I keep slidding it down to which I asked Komo what the hell weight class did you weigh this kid in? ??? He had this wrestler in the wrong weight class, this kid ran for an hour, and could hardly stand on the scale, and I am sure he didn't have a very good day from that point forward. I swear to god he did! :

You haven't seen anything: We are weighing in teams for a tournament, and as the wrestler steps on the scale, and it was one of those nurses scales. The bar hits the top and then comes back down, now this happens all of the time but what happens next doesn't. We notice the coach is standing closer than usual, so we ask him to step back from his wrestler, and he does, and as he does the bar hits the top, and he is over. ??? The coach had his thumb lifting up on his wrestlers butt cheek. ;D At the same tournament a few years later I am weighing in a team from Julian High School, and this wrestler is .4 over and the coach comes up to me and says, come on man, he's just a little over, and later in the day as they are getting ready to leave he and I are talking, and I asked him how he liked Indiana wrestling? And he said Man you guys is sticklers for the rule. And as Doniie Bakker would say I swear to god he did. I have more but with all of the negative things going on lets hear some good ones.

A couple of years ago I worked the team regional at Jimtown and one shcool had a returning state champ at 112, and on Wednesday he came in and was allowed to wrestle 125, but then on Saturday he went back down to 112. So ask yourself how he could do that and follow the formula of weight loss? The other coach wanted to protest the match,but the other coach had a letter from the IHSAA telling them they could do this. I sent a letter asking them why don't they re-install what we had for years, weight class certification, where once you certify at a weight, you could go up two weights but once you did you couldn't come back down, because now you have recertified up two weight classes. End of YO YOing between Wednesday and Saturday, KISS-- keep it simple stupid.