Just thought I'd clear the air regarding this situation, and thank coach Campbell for his comments.
It was indeed me that was officiating the 135 lbs finals match at 3-2-1A State. I will do my best to explain what happened and why I changed that call. From where I was standing and observing the action taking place I knew the Norton wrestler was in the advantage position in control. At a certain point in time I observed him pinning the Rossville wrestler's heel to his buttocks and at that point I began my silent 5 count which is one of the only defined areas in the wrestling rule book where a sitution is timed. Specifically the rule states that is is stalling when "the wrestler in the advantage position holds the heel of his opponent to the buttocks for more than 5 seconds when broken down on the mat"
Almost simultaneously prior to me blowing my whistle, my assistant had walked over behind me and stated that he thought a stalemate was in order. I threw up the stalling call based upon what I had been looking at in that entire situation (not knowing some important information at the moment). At that point Coach Johnson walked over to the table, and was VERY calm, very pleasant, and inquired as to why I had given his wrestler a stalling call when his opponent had both arms around his wrestlers leg in the front and was unable to move around behing and was simply using the leg pin to try to come back around. I told him that I had not seen that and that my call was based on the heel pin I had been observing. Coach Johnson then asked if I would check with my assistant about what he saw, and of course I said "absolutly".
At that point I had a conference with my assistant, and asked him what he saw. He told me that he had saw the leg lock in front and because of that a stalemate was what he had been thinking. As I had not seen the leg lock during the time that that situation was occuring this was new information for me and had I seen it, the stalling call would have never have been given. Based on what Ron had told me, it became obvious that the correct call should have been a stalemate to which I completely agreed, which is why I changed the call.
As funny as it seems, I believe that had this situation happened in a regular season tournament where I was working by myself, I may have moved around to the other side and actually seen the leg lock in front. As I had the assistant on the other side and didn't move to my left to see it which is why the initial call was made.
This very situation demonstrates how effective having an assistant referee to help you can be, not only in seeing things you may not have otherwise seen, but also to offer up a 2nd opinion. It also demonstrates how having a coach request a conference not about a judgement call but about a misapplication can most certainly result in a correct call being made, especially when that coach is respectful and level headed.
I am most thankful to Ron for being my assistant in that match and letting me know about the lock around the leg so that I could change the call appropriately. I am also thankful to Coach Johnson for approaching the table in the correct manner. And even thankful to Coach Brecheisen whom I explained the change to and indicated that he also understood why it happened. My job as an official is to make sure that the right call gets made, and in this situation I think once all information was properly presented that the correct call was a stalemate and a reversal of the call was needed. While I would prefer to get the call right in the first place which I think I do 99.9% of the time, I would never have a problem correcting a situation if it needed to be, no matter how many boos it might cause, because that is what is right for the sport and the wrestlers involved.
