I very much enjoyed the young officials that were working at the Cougar Novice tournament today. Two of them are very good high school wrestlers (I am sure that there were more than two that are currently wrestling high school, but I can only confirm the two). They were very serious about the job they were doing, worked extremely hard all day long, seemed very professional and knowledgeable while officiating matches, and showed sincere concern for the young wrestlers when they were shook up. I appreciate the officiating crews that work the Kansas Kids' tourneys and have for years, but it was neat to have these young men in there participating in this great sport in another capacity. Thanks guys, you all did a great job.

We had 4 current HS wrestlers at the tournament. They do a great job and will become excellent officials. They are getting a lot of experience working with the Novice group, they take it very seriously, and have fun too!

To keep the number of available officials high, we need to ensure we give the younger ones a chance. I have had High School aged officials for the past 2 years and have had no issues with them.

Thanks for the comments.

I stopped in for a couple hours and watched some matches. I knew they were young, but didn't realize the were HS kids. I didn't see any real problems at all, and they seemed to take their jobs seriously, at least while I was there.

I know one other non-HS official was there officiating his first matches. He'd taken the time and made the effort the day before to watch the JV tournament matches from mat-side to get prepared for his debut the next day. That impressed me.