This was the WORST officiating crew I have ever seen this year. Refs not knowing the rules, refs yelling at kids, they all seemed to have a chip on their shoulder. The head ref and the 2 from Wichita were the only ones with any knowledge and respect for all people involved. If that is all D3 has to offer keep them out of the state tournament!!!!

I know the ref on mat 14 was brutal, other than that I did have much trouble.

Now I know why the Salina tourney officials cut out the hospitality room. The official on 15 was obese to the point that he had difficulty getting down to see points on the mat or check for pins.
My son asked me how he was supposed to respect someone that yelled " I want take downs on the center of the mat." Several times at the wrestlers during the match. It appeared he didn't want to go the other side of the circle when they wrestled that way.
This guy missed calls because he just couldn't get down to see them, he appeared to assume what ought to be going on under the wrestlers and make his calls from experience.
I did watch the mat 14 officials some. A new high in lows was seeing 4 blown calls in less than 30 seconds. A new TOC record!

I needed to add that the four calls were in the same match, thats gotta be a record.

While I'll agree that this referee left much to be desired, I agree with the statement he made quoted above. The two wrestler in question were continually going out of bounds taking turns backing up instead of circling in. While he could have used different verbiage to make his point clearer, in my opinion he should have been handing out stalling calls.

There was one ref on mat 12 that stunk it up, blowing the whistle for no reason the kids would stop then he wld tell them to keep goin, counting back points then not awarding them.The rest were pretty good I thought

The Mexican ref on mat 9 threatened to kick one of our wrestlers out for, rolling his eyes at him.....give me a break....ref on mat 5 called a pin when a kid was in a full bridge....ref on mat 11 called a take-down when both wrestlers were out-of-bounds.....sure there were plenty of others...with a tournament of this caliber you'd think they would have been to notch...Great competition!!!! Terrible refs.

Makes absolutely no sense why the aren't using track wrestling..........

The ref on mat 6 was terrible as well.

When you have this many tournaments in the state on a given week-end you are going to have uncertified refs. There are not enough good ones to go around. The head ref said that only 50% of the refs had to be certified at TOC. It's ashame that these guys don't want to stay in shape so they can do their job. What is even worse is the EGO's that they have. Hope is is better through the qualifing tournaments.

CMB.....Agree lots of tournaments going on....but one of this caliber...you want the best out there.....1250 kids at $20 per wrestler...do the math...pay for experienced refs.....not rookies.....is my point.

i wasn't able to attend Salina this year, but my son wrestled on mat 11 and said the refs were awful! He said the boys were all tough though and he had a great time!

Your math should include arena rental then!

14 years ago while coaching a soccer game I got in to a heated discussion with a offical. His last comment to me was if you think this is so easy become a offical. That year I took the the class and ref soccer games for the next 8 years. It made me a much better coach and parent while attending games. I got a true understanding how hard it is. I saw the game from a differnt angle.

Last year my son who had wrestled his whole life became a offical did kids and HS tournaments. He is not doing it this year cause in his words It's not fun be critized ALL the time.

My point here if you don't like what you see on the mat, Buy the shirt and whistle and get on the mat and help us out, we need YOU!!

Ned Price

The quality of the officiating is the Head Official's responsibility. Perhaps the demeanor of said party lends itself to keeping the best officials away from this tournament. Just food for thought.

Why would I buy the shirt and whistle???? I know the criteria!!! Refs should know the same!!!! Coaching multiple kids is hard enough!! Getting screwed by more than 1 ref is rediculous!!

That is even more reason to put on the shirt and whistle. Nothing against you personally Spexy, but there are ALOT of coaches that think they know the criteria and have NO FRICKING CLUE. The coaching this year was just as BAD at SALINA, as the OFFICIATING, probably worse.

If you want to know what is making kids numbers drop so much from 6U to 14U, it is POOR COACHING. I don't know how many times I saw two 6 years olds locking up at the head and both coaches screaming "THROW IT". Teach the kids the basics. Teach them how to wrestle, so when they get older they still enjoy it. POOR COACHING is the biggest problem in Kansas Kids Wrestling, not the OFFICIALS. The Officials are alot easier to blame though.

By the way, the young official on Mat 13 was excellent.

I completely agree with you and you know why. couldn't there be some sort of work your way up the ladder of officiating. Do some novice, start at 6under graduate to 8under etc. on to open and so forth.

Now this particular ref is worse than I've ever seen not just at this tournament but a few weeks ago same guy same trouble different tournament. I don't know if that's some thing maybe they already do or not.

I agree with Beeson on young official on matt 13.
Bob

Somehow the wrestlers are soaking up good ideas and developing skills, it must be the internet training videos or the shoes. I saw lots of quality wrestling this weekend combined with novice officiating.

I did stop by the head ref and ask him to watch an official on another mat that was allowing the bottom wrestler to stand up and stagger around the mat with the top wrestler fully mounted with both legs in and fighting for a power half. Those wrestlers weren't any I was invovled with but it was scary to watch them and wonder when the injury was going to happen. There were probably 35 seconds of mat time that the two were intertwined and the bottom wrestler was standing.

Oh by the way sportsfan, you discussed math in your reply like you understood the subject. Please don't mislead people like that.

Uhhhh ooooook