First off, the whole arguement of "if you don't like it, you do it" is totally wrong. You signed up for the position. You agreed to work the tournament. You were getting paid. This is a job. I often tell my wrestlers that there are two jobs that you can get into that people hate you just by the clothes you wear - law enforcement and official. Everyone is a critic, you knew that going into the profession. This is a lame defense.

Second, if in all honesty you do not know who Thomas Rhodes is, you should not be anywhere near a state caliber wrestling tourney. I'm not saying Thomas is bigger than the sport, but as a fan of the sport, I knew when I arrived that there were certain matches that I wanted to see. I knew it would be an awesome match. As fans and as coaches, we know who to watch and what matches would be huge as well as entertaining.

Third, the issue of the crowd around the mat and the issues of coach control. This would be a problem everywhere within the facility, it's just more extreme because of the fact that the 15/16 year olds have no wooden partition whereas most mats do. The same problem occurs with the little kids on the far end as well. It's not a TOHK problem alone, it happens with other clubs as well. When one club does it, it's called spirit. When another club does it, it's called intimidation.

Fourth, I should state that I do believe Thomas was wrong for saying what he said. He should have been kicked out.

I guess I shouldn't be upset (which I'm not), I'm just stating the obvious. I find it very troublesome (as others may) that an official uses the "then you do it" defense for some sort of moral justification of the removal of Thomas from the state tourney almost a month after the fact to gain some sort of acceptance from the wrestling community. Especially considering the fact that it was requested that another official officiate the match and was denied. Add the fact that the same official tried to kick one of the coaches from TOHK off the wall he was standing behind to watch a match that was about to start, then going to the head official to see if he could actually do it, thus delaying the tourney for a simple grudge that had nothing to do with the task at hand. . . .

Please, this is an old topic, already forgotten. To have you come into a wrestling forum to validate yourself a month after the fact is wrong. Especially considering the fact some of your actions later in the day were retalatory in nature (removal of coach from mat).

I'm smelling a dead horse....
Please don't respond.

gibby