These guys are the future. Without them the tournament's future would be even more bleak from a quality wrestling standpoint.


Official Angeblind J. was missing the "reach all the way around" start by Henes when he was on top so I said "Watch the hand, watch the hand". He promptly cautioned Henes and then told me to get into the stands. I moved the mandated 24 inches from the floor, where I was with 30 other people, to the first row of the bleachers. Just an official who wanted to make a spectacle of himself instead of just worrying about the action in the circle.

This is a perfect opportunity to bring up what is sure to be a serious problem in the near future. At this tournament there wasn't a single official under 40 years of age. This pretty much mirrors all of the big tournaments and the state tournament. It is a genuine good ole boy system with no evaluation system and no process to point out the MANY mistakes that were made. If we don't have any quality officials that are 20-40 years old then our sport is in big trouble. AD's need to evaluate their crews and make sure they have a succession plan in place. We all know KSHSAA Rick isn't going to do anything so we better start taking care of this ourselves. I am tired of seeing the same old group year in and year out. The old guys need to scale back or retire and make room for some new blood. These guys need to take into consideration the countless hours these wrestlers and their coaches invest in preparation. They put on their stripe shirts with their big chips on their shoulders and come into the gym with an attitude of complete disregard for getting right all of the time, every time. Why? Because they can! They get a state tournament assignment every year no matter how bad they suck because there is no grading or evaluation system. This is another HUGE area where our sport can be improved with some KSHSAA changes.