Birth Marks

I actually have some concerns about the Salina tournament, and now for any tournament my son will be registering for. My son has a birth mark... a "strawberry" as it is called, and is not contagious and never has been contagious. He was not allowed to wrestle Saturday. What can be done to bring as proof that this is only a harmless birthmark?

I would like my money back or course, but that was refused, and now we are afraid to enter him at another tournament. He is only 6 and has no understanding as to why he could not wrestle.

Please give me some advice. I don't want to see the look I saw on my son's face again. He was devestated, and we were very upset. What can we do for proof that he has always had this birthmark... ps. the mark is under his singlet on his back.

TheTeach,

http://usawks.com/HighSchool/skinHS.pdf

I understand your frustration. Attached is a link to the form you will need to have your son's pediatrician fill out. It is necessary to allow your son to participate in any USAWA sanction event or practice. I have not seen the birthmark; however your situation is not that uncommon. Procedures are in place for the common good. You would not want you son wrestling another wrestler with a contagious skin condition would you? Get the birthmark documented properly and I don't think you will have any more problems.

I hope this helps.

Thank you, we do have the paper now... we had not seen this paper until this week. My question is, do we need to go to the doctor every week to verify the birth mark... is there a form for that? We have been told we may need to go to the doctor the week of each tournament. This is something our doctor will tire of, and frankly, we can't afford the weekly co-pay. We are taking him for verification of the birthmark tomorrow.

I understand the need for safety, but I feel the PA should have been able to tell the difference. The EMT was able to verify the birth mark, but the PA would not change her mind. We have not had this problem prior to Salina, and our son had to watch his brother wrestle. The Physician Release for Wrestler's seems to be for wrestler's that actually have an illness.

According to this form "Art. 4.... If an on-site meet physician is present, he/she may overrule the diagnosis of the physician signing the physician's release form for a wrestler to participate with a particular skin condition." So, even with the proper verification, my son could be denied his tournament entry. Any suggestions... I guess I am wanting the full proof garantee and the proper form before tomorrow.

I once had a wrestler who had psoriasis and he went to a dermatologist. In addition to the skin release form, I carried a written affidavit from the dermatologist stating what the skin condition was. I had no problems from then on.

On the form attached there is a ”form expiration date”. This line item was not on the previous year’s paperwork. I think that it may have been added to accommodate your situation. As a tournament director, I have two important notes I’d like to add to this issue. One, I would not accept a form expiration date from a doctor for any skin related “contagious” condition that was more than a week older than the diagnosis and treatment of said condition. Secondly, a “birthmark” would need to be documented by description and location on the body or I may find the validity of the form suspect and any skin condition that is not deemed to be contagious but cannot be fully documented by both description and location on the body would need a release that is “currant”. In the past, I believe “currant” was defined as less than one week old. I am not a doctor and most tournament directors aren’t either; all we can do is interpret the docs diagnosis and treatment listed on the form provided. But we can judge the form to be incomplete or inconsistent. Please help your doc out by asking him to take the time to fill out and document your individual situation in detail.

I know that this issue is an inconvenience for some. But the rules in this case were put into place for the greater good of our sport. The close body-on-body contact of this sport requires us to take the necessary precautions to protect the greater group even though some may find it inconvenient for the individual. No tournament director wants to be put in the situation of telling a parent/child that they cannot participate. I am not suggesting that a birthmark or other non-contagious skin condition should prevent you from wrestling; just help ensure the validity of the system that is in place and "if in doubt, check it out"!

When you go and get the form filled out, just have the Dr. write and short letter detailing the birthmark. Get the form and the letter photocopied back-to-back and have mutliple copies made. That way you're not "out of luck" if a ref/meet managment doesn't get the form back to you.

I work HS/College and Lyons HS had a kid with a non-contagious skin form with 4-5 pages of documentation of the rash. They said they had called KSHSAA and they agreed there was no need to keep going back each week. My suggestion was for the coach/AD to email KSHSAA and get a "written" reply to that essence, so they could print it off and have themselves covered 6 ways to Sunday.

My suggestion, is for you to get the forms, maybe contact the Ks. USA "director" and write a similar letter, verifying that the documentation is legit so you are covered that same way.

Hope this helps...

Teach,

The form you had last night at practice is not the correct form to take with you to the doc. Please call Tammy or I at home tonight we explain more then. You should have the number if not you can get it from this website under Directors or from the club website.

Jess Keith

Yes, that is correct we had a PA at our tourn say that the mark on his back did not look like a birth mark... Our coach and tourn director told the family if they would go to State Care or the Hospital and get a release we would let him wrestle. When holding a tourn with over 1,000 wresters it is about the saftly of all wresters. With that said, we feel we made the correct decision about not letting the kid wrestle without a release.

We also ended up at stat care as a result of questionable skin condition. The only difference we had two physician release forms signed by doctors. The top box on this form states Physician release for wrestler to participate with skin lesion. Our doctors indicated when we started treatment, kind of medicine, location of lesion, all dates of visits and doctor information. With all of this our son still had to get another doctors opinion to wrestle. The reason given by the officials was that our doctor did not write on the form this was non communicable condition. We were under the understanding that if the doctors signed this form it was a release for participation. I would suggest an additional line on the form that deals with this.

Our coach has always told us if you think someone may say something, you better get a skin release form. From a bruise, scratch, rash, to a cold sore - get a release and save the hassle.