Iwas just wandering if there are allways so many kid's with a poor spoortsmanship attitude at the state tourny?
I cant count how many kids lost there temper when they lost.I understand getting mad but not wanting to shake hands with the winner is not right.

You said something in another topic about it being an embarassment to the club. As a coach I hate it when one of my kids throw their head and after every match I tell them to shake the ref's hand as a sign of sportsmanship.

Just a note for the kids. If you watch most of the better wrestlers when they lose they dont show bad sportsmanship most of them just look and go next time is my chance to redeem myself. The one match that stands out in my mind as much as any is from high school state when Harding of Norton lost to Matt Gilland (spelling maybe wrong) of Hoxie. Harding acctually raised the hand of Gilland after the match was over.

i agree , i think it is a shame when a child will not shake the hand of his opponent, they both went in knowing one would win one would lose. it
is reflected on the coaches. something else i noticed in the 10 year olds, there is a young man, don't know his name, that gives a hug to his opponent win or lose. i think that is great. i understand being upset with yourself for maybe something that you goofed one causing to lose. BUT
why in the world do the coaches act the way they
do to some of these young athletes when they lose, i see arms throwing every way, words that have to be horrible, this kid just gave it his best. and most of all these young people wrestle and regarless of what place they receive, why deny or not insist that they do not accept there plaques and have their pictures taken at the end. they deserve that, they fought there way to were they are, for everyone that places there is one who does not, and would have given anything to be on the podium. that is also very poor sportmanship, and i have seen twice in the past three weeks.

I don't get why you people can criticize people for throwing their headgear. i remember in grade school my teachers always saying you can't bottle things up, and thats so true, when you lose its hard, and some people handle defeat differently, wether it be throwing head gear, crying or acting like a baby rolling around, i think that parents should let kids do some sort of letting their aggression out. After i was screwed on a raunchy a$$ call this weekend by a crooked ref (who had to have the head referee watch the remaining matches that he did for friday and saturday)(fyi...the same ref who also threw rhodes out and called kids for stalling when they tied their shoes) i threw my headgear and said a few words i shouldn't have maybe, but everyone handles it different as you get older you learn to cope with losing and you start to handle it in a smarter manner but when you get royaly screwed out of winning a match it ***** and its heart breaking, i saw many referees screw wrestlers this weekend and don't tell me that its a mistake and it happens because i can pick out 1 referee who made so many mistakes it made me sick.
my personal view is that if you lose no matter how you lost be a man shake your oppenents hand shake the opposing coaches hand and then go off somewhere and do whatever you need to do to release that anger.

When you get every muscle in your body involved in a match--plus all of your mental capabilities--it's easy to lose perspective on what calls were right and what calls were wrong. And once a kid is emotional he is rarely objective obout what comes next. No ref is perfect--but his/her bad calls tend to go both ways. You may get screwed on one call and have a tough time letting it go---but hardly remember the favorable call he gave you at a different point in the match. I just don't know many really good wrestlers who blame refs for losing....that's part of what makes them really good.

they should get a little bit tighter on the unsportmanlike calls cause there is alot of kids that are runnig off and not shaking the hands of the winner. If they started calling that a little bit more then it might cut down on all of the bad kids

I think that they should really crack down on sportsmanship in kids wrestling. Because this were it all starts. Thisprogram is to teach these kids how to win and howto lose. After all losing isa part of life and it should be taught at a young. I know if i through a temper tantrum on the matt my parents would make quit wrestling. If you need to vent some steam go and find a place were nobody else is and then throwa hissy fitt.

Alot of the poor sportsmanship starts with the parents and coaches. Some does not. Most parents and coaches are wonderful, but a few very vocal ones set a "very visible image" that sometimes leaves a bigger impression. In one very heated match in the quarterfinals between 2 state placers from last year I heard one coach cuss and the ref, the crowd, the opposing coaches, and anyone else who was in ear shot. He screamed racial remarks and profanity and threatened the other coaches. (I was not one of them, one of my wrestlers was up next) It was horrible. And for some unknown reason he was not removed. If a wrestler did the same actions, he would be thrown out. Now what type of example do you think that set for every wrestler on his team or any kid that was watching? Even if that teams parents are in total support of sportsmanship, all that is out the window with the actions of the coach. One of the biggest lessons learned from wrestling is one of self-control. If we get emotional and throw things (as posted earlier) we do not need to be coaching. There is a difference between being emotional and being an *** . The state as a whole needs to drop the hammer on this and maybe the officials could do a better job if we gave them better working conditions. (I believe that referees as a whole do a pretty good job. Most are in it becuase they love it. Some are in it for the money, but I would have to think it is rare for any ref to be out to screw anyone). Some of the top officials in the state refuse to ref kids because of the working conditions, hours and access of parents and coaches (many more that the two in a corner) to the mat. Maybe if we improved the environment we could attract more of the top level refs.

Regarless, all of need to police our own teams, and ourselves. To help us in that effort the state should enforce with zero tolerance to the coaches, and maybe one warning to the kids better actions. When one of your seven year old wrestlers says he does't want to wrestle against another kid, not becuase of the kid but because "he is scared of the other coach". Something is very wrong. That happened to me.

Something to think about.

Good things happen to good people, and hard work will overcome good luck.

This is for Olathe North 171 about kids needing to let out their emotions. You're right, but on the mat in an unsportsmanlike way is inappropriate. I'm speaking as a parent of a child with a very bad transition year to 8-under. I didn't care if he got upset after a match, cried or whatever. But if he threw his headgear, I jumped him, unless Coach beat me to it. That's inexcusable in my book. Sure, it was hard for an 8-year-old to learn to handle that much emotion -- after putting his heart and everything he had into a match, he lost. When that happened, there was no talking to him, he just wanted to be left alone. Fine. The only rule was that I had to know where he was going to calm down and I would watch from a respectful distance. When he was ready for socializing, he came to me.

It was worse this weekend at Nationals. Not many of those kids are used to losing so there was a lot of crying and fits thrown.

yes there was a lot of disappointed young men and women today, and some were really upset with themselves. but for the most part watching from the stands and as a whole, there was more sportsman like conduct toward wrestlers, coaches, and referees than i have ever seen. everyone one those kids wrestled well, and conducted themselves
well when they were on matt, and yes upset with themselves, but for the most part it was OFF the mat. they needed time to compose themselves after winning and losing.

This is my son's first year of wrestling. This is also his first experience in an individual sport. In football, his team in the last two years has only lost 4 times, with two of those being in tournament play. He had a hard time at his first lost this year at the Topeka Tournament. But he also got up and shook the winner's hand and the coach's hand then went off and cried and even got sick. I was real disappointed in him for doing that, but after this weekend and seeing what some of these kids do, I think my son's behavior is normal. He has told me that when he loses he feels like he lets his coach down and he won't want to coach him anymore. I think many kids feel that way and that is what the emotion is about.

Thanks for a great tournament this weekend. I was real impressed with how well the tournament was ran. Congratulations to all the wrestlers for just being there and giving it your all.

The vast majority of wrestlers show great sportsmanship and at the same time, as in any walk of life, you have a few that do not. The trick as a parent or a coach not to model the same behavior and show the boys and girls how to channel the "misplaced" or inappropriate behavior. Poor sportsmanship brings more attention to the participant, family, club or school, and community much more than most people realize (look at the High School chat from Regionals and State this year) A couple of kids received a lot of space while the "good" ones did not. Parents and coaches keep working with them in a positive and constructive way.

Mike