amIaCoach

Or maybe just paint circles and let them wrestle in skates? Seriously lets just go double elemination and forget UTC. They prefer men's basketball over TSSAA wrestling anyway...

Wow is all I can say! The referee unfortunately made the right call in the end. If an opponent is injured from an illegal hold and can not continue he wins the match. I could not tell if it was illegal or not from the camera but it looks to me as if the coach pulled a fast one here. It is sad that the officials had to be escorted out because they did the right call. If a coach says that their kid can not go the referee's hands are tied. I believe the coaches’ code of ethics is in play here.

How funny it is when someone from west Tennessee complains about stalling. I was at a tournament this year and was asked by another coach from west Tennessee about locking hands. They had no idea that overlaping or even touching of hands was locking hands. I was told that the only way it is called locking hands in the west is if the hands are grasped together. So before you start saying things about mid state refs you may want to acctually do a few steps. One read a rule book which can be purchased at the national federation web site. Step 2 read the rule book. Step three go to TSSAA.org and sign up because it sounds like you think you could do the job much better. So put your money where your mouth is.

The only problem of officiating I see on here are the bleacher officials... Kind of sad you know how some one who is at least 20 feet away from the mat can see a pin from there when most officials are about 15 inches away or less... Also if anyone wants to know you can purchase rule books for the NFHS web site. http://www.nfhs.com/c-251-wrestling.aspx They are 7.50 each for case book and rules book. I think if more bleacher officials would buy these and read them maybe they would have a reason to complain...

103 Mt Julet Over Arab 119 Arab over White House (Best Match) 135 Hume Fog Over MT J 140 Hunters Lane Over MLK 215 Hunters Lane Over Lebanon

Does anyone know who the head coach is this year??

Another coach that this person is disrespecting is coach Bass of MLK. Another coach who is a class act. I know for certain that if he saw the comments being said on here about East Lit and the referee's he would be embarassed about what is being said. This is sad when you are not only disrespecting coach Whittaker but you are also disrespecting coach Bass and his staff by acting this way. You only make yourself look bad. Do not disrepect these two fine coaches.....

So lets see where do I start on this. First Shaw Garrett is a fine official. Yes his son wrestled for East Lit but that has nothing to do with his officiating. He calls it straight. So do not go down that road. Shawn is one of our better officials. I get sick and tired of people wanting to bash the official because somthing did not go the way they wanted it to. Officials are human too and do make mistakes from time to time. The difference of a good official and a bad official is that good ones learn from their mistakes and admit to them. Shaw will admit if he messes up and will correct those problems. I suggest if you want to complain about officials then take your fifty dollars and go to Donelson to the TSSAA head quarters and regester. We could always use someone who does't make mistakes. If the "bleacher officials" in this area would just regester then I am sure we would have some of the greatest officials of all time on the mat. Because we all know that the best view of anything including pins are seen from the bleachers. The bleacher official can call a stall at a seconds notice can see that illeagle hold while they are even at the concession stands. The bleacher official reads the rule book inside and out and can never make a mistake. We all know how easy it is to make these calls from there. Now then as for coach Whiticker. You will not find a more class act than that. Did you know that this year he has wrestled his JV several time against teams that he knew were young. He even almost lost a match because of this. You want to know why because he has been their and he wants to help the sport of wrestling. He does not take any crap from his kids. He will kick them off the team not matter who they are. He has given 100% all these years and now that he is getting some success you want to open your mouth. I can remeber him have just three kids and he took them every where. To tournament duals tri meets and even quads. He has had plenty of ups and downs through out his coaching career. So I am pretty sure he sleeps well at night...

Well it seems that the AAU does not want to use TSSAA refs. I heard that they can not because of insurance purposes for the AAU. Then I hear that they think that the referees want too much money to call a tournament. I hate to say this but I think that AAU should really consider that the TSSAA officials even though are not perfect are worth every dime to insure the safty of the wrestlers. In my honest opinion I believe that not everyone can officiate wrestling. Theere is more to officiateing than just calling take downs. I love my kid wrestling but why put him in a situation where he could get hurt because of inexpierience on the mat. Also the regions had no effect on the officilas being at the tournament they just chose not to use TSSAA officials.

Great post!

I think some Refs from Middle TN tried to do this many years ago. HTey had all the kids set up to do this but it fell through because of the TSSAA.

Brian I'm glad you wrote this. Good luck with the middle school program. You have always been a class act in my book!!

Its very simple Someimes the cradel is the hardest to call... are you sure he was on his shoulders? and Where you in the second tier of the arean?

na I thought this site had spell check.... My bad....

I agree totaly....

DCA and TSB have both combind as a team now. I think the TSB kids dont come out like they used too.

Could have some state wide training. I heard that Ken Mera is running a clinic now for TSSAA that officials are going to be requiered to attend..

Want to realy know what the porblem is with wrestling??? Parents that don't know the rules.... Not saying all of them dont but the majority doesn't.. There is no official that is 100% correct all the time. They do their best in one of the most difficult sprots to call. Every official has his day and there are calls that are missed. Im just saying that a lot of people I hear in the stands complaining either doesn't under stand what is being called or not called. As for Pins there is no one in a better position in calling pins other than the official on the mat. He is there looking right at the shoulders. There is also a two second count in High school wrestling. Unlike frestyle where the shoulders touch it is over. Many of time I have called wrestle offs and guess what a kid can keep his shoulder inches off the mat for 20 seconds.....

By the way before anyone else decides to put their two cents worth in about officials that we name no names because one official got named in an earlier post and it was not the official that was named it was infact another official that they meant to comment on.. Next if anyone here thinks they could be a better official lets get regestered with the TSSAA and get on the mat because im sure they will use you because you sure know more about the rules than they do.... note sarcasum is being used about any stand ref getting on the mat...

Yep you sure have a better look from the second level than the official down on the mat looking for a pin. Did you know that there is a two second count before the wrestler is pinned? Also a ref can count on and as he is about to hit two the shoulder comes up.... I am so glad that people in the stands can see so much better than an official....

In this day and age is TSSAA wrestling we have two divisions. We have had this for many years now. With that saying some of these wrestlers over the last few years have done all they could just to be a state champ. Sometimes I wonder though if we were all under one banner would we have some of these guys dominate like they do now. How many kids would be 4 time state champs? How many 8th graders would win their first state? Would Father Rayan all those years ruled the duals? Would Bradley have ruled all these past few years in the State? I know other states have more than two division but I feel this state just need one. Thanks to the Football rule I feel wrestling has missed out on some pretty big and exciting things.....

Who votes for this award? Is it coaches or officials or both?

First of all the comments made about the 215 from Beech was wrong.. He had legit injury times. First he got caught in that special area that we all know hurts like well you know. The second Im not too sure of I think he landed on his head. The third was recovery time from an illeagle head lock that caused him to get injured. Now if he was using any time because of shape then he could have not continued and won the title on a illeagle move guess what he went on no matter how much wind he was sucking. Plus how many 215 + kids have you seen not sucking wind at some time. As for the parent it is unfortunate that we have some like that. At least the officials stepped in and had him take the walk. By the way the 215 from FC thought he separted his shoulder but the trainers said that he was ok and it looked like a muscle strain... Oh by the way great job in running the tourney MJ it was ran owsome. Congrats to Wilson Central on winning the reigon title. Thanks to all the fans that showed up and gave thier support. Thanks to all the wrestlers who participated and good luck to those who are continuing. Also a thanks to the officials for their hard work we may have not all agreed on the calls but there were no injuries and no big messes to clear up either. Well excpet for that one parent.... All in all a great tournement....

What weight class are they in??

If he can keep his fingers out of peoples mouths......