After reading some of the posts and reflecting on the weekend, I feel that the issues that we might have had with officiating should fall on my shoulders. Prior to the tournament, I review each mat and document the age divisions and weights that are wrestling on each mat. After I do this, I start assigning officials to each mat. I assign 3 officials for 2 mats. If I am familiar with officials, I try to assign them to mats where the competition is similar to what they would have seen throughout the season. i.e. – officials that work a lot of High School to the mats where we have the high school or U14 competitors.
There are other officials that are comfortable with the smaller 8 year olds; I try to assign them to this division. As you could imagine there is huge difference in the way an 8 year old should be officiated as opposed to a high schooler. As I go about assigning, I visit with the officials to determine if they are comfortable with the assignments. I always try to assign experienced officials with officials have never worked the state tournament before; I also do this in the finals. I do this to allow the official to be comfortable with the ability of the wrestlers on their assigned mats. Throughout the day I observe and if necessary move an official to a mat that better supports their experience gives them an opportunity to succeed. Sometimes I do not recognize this in a timely manner and it causes problems.
The state tournament is a very unique environment. As the day progresses, I get multiple inquiries on rule clarification, (from both officials and coaches), people want me to watch a video of an earlier matches, grievances based on calls or situations, etc. The way that I handle grievances is to take the official to the middle of the mat, have them explain the situation; explain the criteria they used to make the call, and ensure that the rules are being followed based on the criteria. In most cases this is all I have to go off of, we can discuss the issue, but very rarely can we overturn this based on what information is provided.
I know for a fact that the officials that were selected feel honored and privileged to represent their districts at this tournament.
Keith Ashpole