Great job Bobcat

Hats off to the Basehor Wrestling club on a successful tournament. Well done. We had some young officials that got their feet wet reffing today and most of the coaches did a great job of understanding that. Well run tournament!

Awesome tourney, great job Basehor crew. Big tourney that ran smoothly. Very well organized. Great awards.

Thanks to all involved!

In my opinion all officials at kids wrestling tournaments should be certified officials. I have my Bronze card, as I spent almost an entire day and $ getting it. I also had to pay for a background check, complete the safe sports requirements and pay for a USA card. The wrestlers have to have a USA card, and they have to be in their required uniform.

I am all for anyone getting experience, but are they really getting “their feet wet” when they have not even taken the test to be certified?

I was also pleased with the running of the tournament, but I was disappointed that a few of the refs were obviously not certified to officiate.

Thanks for the support from all of the clubs that attended today. This was our first tournament as a club and we had a great turnout and put together some great brackets with equal competition. Even though we had a few no shows we still started on time and was out of there at a decent hour. As far as the officials are concerned I think that Brent and his crew did a great job. We did have an issue with having to add an additional mat surface a few days ago so that combined with a few officials that called in today because of the snow put us in a bind. We had two options 1. Take breaks throughout the day (which no one wants) to give officials a break or 2. call in a couple of hard working young guns to help officiate. I think we made the right call and I can tell you as a former official that it inst as easy as it looks and I personally think that every coach should have to officiate a tourney or two to find this out. For the most part our young guys did a great job and I only know of a couple complaints and Brent addressed them immediately (if they were brought to the table in the proper fashion). We learned what we could do better next year and will only get stronger and better from today. Once again we appreciate everyone that came to visit us and hope to see you all again next season.

James Gallet
Bobcat Wrestling

Troy, I couldn't agree with you more. Anyone wanting to officiate should read the rulebook and take the test, the same goes for the coaches but thats another topic. I too am bronze certified, have taken multiple coaching courses etc, safe sport certified, etc...

3 of the 6 young officials have taken the test and can be found on the USAKS officials list. Also, the three who were not certified were very good considering their lack of experience. Each young official had an older official working with them at some point in the day. Every official will make a mistake, young or old, those that want to get good at it will learn from their mistakes. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it kids is where that should happen, or at the least the lower levels of high school.

Fact of the matter was we were in a bind with 3 officials unavailable. A fourth had to leave early due to an issue at home. Nobody won a state championship yesterday, everyone hopefully learned from their mistakes, and in the end it was a good day. Another fact is we desperately need more officials and coaches berating a younger official doesn't help. I know I had to intervene on at least one occasion and remind the coach that the young official was a high school kid who is learning. As a coach, teach the kids to never let it come down to an officials mistake to cost a match. There were other opportunities to win the match other than the missed call that the coach was upset with.