The easiest thing in the world to do when a match doesn't go your way to blame it all on a "homer" ref. Where I come from that called an excuse, not a reason. I have told my wrestlers for years that if the match ever gets into a position in which a questionable call from an official can decide it, you probably didn't do enough to win the match yourself.

Do I ever have a problem with an official's call? Of course; what coach doesn't? Heck, I had some serious problems with at least one match at our regional at Wellsville. But when we start blaming all the ills of the world on poor officiating we've lost our focus.

It's like the argument about what happened in the 130-pound final at Wellsville where the young man got DQed and knocked out of the State tournament. Making the issue the call (or non-call) in the first period rather than what happened in the third period is excuse-making; we make our own breaks in life and using an official as a cheap scapegoat is dodging the issue.