If you want to see why officials are getting more thin skinned or defensive look at how they are treated by some (not all and not even near the majority) of the coaches. The enjoyment of the sport can be completely taken out of a match with constant berating coming out of the corner that I assume is a coach trying to get an edge for their wrestlers, well I can safely say I don't have to assume. We have all seen coaches go to the table so wrestlers can catch their breath, their wind back, break the momentum of a kid making a come back, or to try and get into the head of the official as if the coach was a clone of Bobby Knight (who I was a big fan of by they way). If we want officials to be invisible during a match then we have to make it an environment that they can be and not call attention to them to create an advantage for a wrestler. If a coach goes to the table they put the official into the spotlight, I am not saying to not go to the table but make sure it is absolutely necessary; is the score wrong, second official identified a missed call or may have had a better view, something that should obviously fixed, or to even get clarification of why they made a call. But to just argue is not valid, I don't think I have ever seen a judgement call ever changed. Don't get me wrong there are some officials who like confrontation and showing a coach who is in charge, and that group is probably growing, but when one coach gives them the fuel to flame the megalomaniac then who is really creating the environment for the other coaches to deal with?
I still coach and considered myself to be an acceptable official i.e. fair, not perfect, but fair. This topic got me thinking about when Coach Thrasher convinced me to get an officials license and helped me get a coaching job (the same year) 35 years ago, how much I loved officiating. I loved the responsibility, putting my best effort to be in the right position and make the right call, making sure that each wrestler had my best because I knew how much work they had put in. I didn't really enjoy coaching all that much back then but thought I should give back. Now it has switched, I enjoy watching the kids at all levels get better and when they succeed (not just win) there is no better feeling than knowing I got to be a part of it. But it would take a pretty dire need to get me to put a shirt back on. I even let my license expire so I couldn't do it anymore even under an emergency (which was the only reason i got my license again), there just was no enjoyment in being pulled into the limelight for me and it was happening more and more often.
I still see a lot of very good and patient officials out there who do it for the enjoyment of the sport because it is definitely not for $$$. I have seen some who are learning, and some who need a lot of help. I also agree with one of the other forum members that if you understand enough to call out officials for being wrong (and it happens) or especially identify some as not worthy of being officials then you should be willing to put the shirt on and make them better as a group. In case some of you don't know AD's and coaches control the officials working at the home matches, sometimes it comes down to who is available. I have had officials fail to show up and had to cancel matches because there were no officials available, so before you execute an official in a public forum please stop and think if there is anything worse than not having a match because you don't have an official?
