All,

I have been reading through the message string and I think everyone brings up valid points. Having read through all the messages there is one thing that jumps out at me....

We have discussions from a coach's point of view, discussions from a referee's point of view, and discussions from a parent's point of view about sportsmanship of the children wrestlers.

To me there is one common denominator....coaches, parents, and refs are ADULTS. It is up to us to work together to set the example and demand the appropriate behavior (sportsmanship) from our wrestlers (CHILDREN).

The challenge is that wrestling is a very emotional sport and it is easy to get caught in the emotion (regardless if you are a child or adult). With that said it is up to the ADULTS to work together to set the example for the children.

We have been at this season now for almost 4-5 months and I can honestly say that I have seen a lot more examples of positive, good sportsmanship from parents, coaches, officials, and wrestlers than I have poor sportsmanship. Because of that I want to thank the majority of parents, coaches, officials, and wrestlers for working together and showing good sportsmanship. I am convinced that the majority of this population demonstrate good sportsmanship 90% of the time and it is a very small population that show poor sportsmanship.

Bottomline: For those few exceptional times that poor sportsmanship is displayed then it is up to the parents, coaches, and refs (ADULTS) to work with the kids to show them the right way to behave.

I don't know how much this diatribe helps but I at least feel better. Thanks.