RidinTime

Well that's a relief. I'm glad you're not. Not sure why you keep mentioning TN. As I only brought it up to correct you on your own ASSumption of my origin. I'll let you have the last word (since that's what you're accustomed to) because this thread ain't about you or me.

Very impressed with pigeon forge. Coach Foreman has them moving in the right direction for sure.

Did that hit close to home? Can you not handle being poked back?

You're welcome. Not from this state btw, when it hits home I'll let ya know. Look forward to your future posts, dbag.

You're such a tool. Congrats Philip. You're a great representative of the sport for the entire state.

I think most people appreciate the service of the officials and realize that most of them just want to give back to the sport. It's one thing to defend a ref if a questionable call is made during a scramble or chain wrestling, but the call against the FR kid was shocking. What else was he supposed to do? If his shot is blocked, is he supposed to just let go and give up a TD? To all the refs posting about 'spirit of the rule book' or whatever nonsense- I would ask where your common sense is... Like others have mentioned, if the FR kid's shot attempt was stalling that one particular time and every other similar situation its always a stalemate,, then why is stalling never called on top man for throwing boots to avoid giving up an escape?? Please provide the rule or spirit of the rule for this situation. This particular match involved a ref who was clearly trying to inject himself into the match, rather than be a neutral arbiter. It was unfortunate that Mosley wrestled his finals match on the same shift as that official.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.. You're exactly right- it does no good to complain about the refs. and as you have just pointed out, the missed calls seem to balance themselves out in the end. Blaming refs for the result of matches is pointless. The Baylor fans seem to understand that, which is probably why they're not on here raising helll and crying. Others should follow their lead.

Not so much that CB won because of a ref, but maybe Baylor lost because of one. It's not a stretch to say.. After all, you have a lot of experience when it comes to blaming refs for missed calls and thus costing an indiv. or team from a win. You've even gone so far as to say, in the past, that refs have ulterior motives during some matches. Fact is CB won on that given day, congrats to them. My humble opinion is that Baylor has a slight edge for the indiv crown.

If a coach has total control over his program, which gives him the right to schedule whomever he wants (which you have acknowledged), then why doesn't he have the right to cancel a match if it is in the best interest of his team? From what I gathered, there were multiple other teams who attended anyways. Furthermore, you have stated in the past that a coach knows best for his team and no one else, so he is not held accountable by others. So it makes no difference if a coach cancels a match or refuses to schedule one in the beginning- they are powers given to the coach to use, as he sees fit, in the interest of his team. I have no interest in going back and forth with you, as you remind me of that child in the family who has to have the last word or will make the day miserable for all around him. I yield back the balance of my time.

I'm sorry Texas but I am just not going to waste my time, aimlessly looking for posts from over a year ago. I'm confident that I can read and have the competency to understand what I've read. Your view in the past is that a coach knows best for his team and to heck with everyone else. That's the beauty of these online forums though - Anyone can speak with the broadest of strokes, even yourself, right? But for your amusement, I'll refer to your initial post of this thread. I suppose I replied to your accusation based on one sentence- "If you want to hurt the sport of wrestling, cancel your matches cause you are not at your very best." Really? I can think of much bigger issues that hurt the sport in this state that would trump a small school division team from canceling on another. I'm just glad the team that'll win DI has likely already wrestled the winner of DII, whoever those teams may be. That's good for wrestling in your state.

Texas23, I am somewhat confused on your position. I could've sworn that I have seen you on this board, in the past, advocating that coaches and programs can engage in this very kind of behavior- along with choosing who you want to wrestle and whom you want to avoid. It seems that the undesirable character and disposition of mike scott has succeeded in clouding many people's logic on this board. As a student of the law, I would expect better.

And what a night that was.

That's a very flimsy argument to make considering what I've observed about the wrestling in this state over the last decade or so..

FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED, March 30, IN THE WSJ: Wrestling, Sport for Our Times By James Freeman The official sport of the "new normal" recently held its annual championships in Philadelphia. Think of college wrestling as the athletic version of an austerity program. Wearing almost nothing, coached by men who make next to nothing, and with no hope of professional careers because they don't exist, 34 competitiors in each weight class arrived on the mats of the NCAA tournament. Of course, all but one in each of the 10 weight classes left disappointed. As consolation prizes, many received significant facial bruising, and at least one, defending champion Darrion Caldwell of NC State, a dislocated shoulder. Was anyone helped by quantitative easing? Not really. Some easing occurred when Arizona State's Bubba Jenkins released his cradle and stopped forcing his opponent to touch his knee to his head. But that was because the referee had signalled a pin to end the match, so Mr. Jenkins could afford to be accommodative. Since the financial crisis, many Americans have talked about a return to traditional values like thrift, prudence and hard work. You can't get more traditional than wrestling. Even before Odysseus and Ajax grappled to a draw in Homer's Iliad, even before wrestling was a fan favorite at the ancient Olympics, cavemen scrawled images of prehistoric bouts. Prudence? Experience in this sport teaches that one small mistake can result in a wrestler being thrown to his back. As for thrift, many competitors and coaches weren't even spending money on shampoo, their shaved heads gleaming under the lights of the Wells Fargo Center. Hard work? These guys have to train for "man's oldest form of recreational combat" WHILE on a diet. Sports fans still struggling with unemployment close to 9 percent, may find that wrestling has a new appeal in this environment. NFL players and owners still haven't agreed on how to split $9 Billion. In baseball, just two players, Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo, are scheduled to earn a combined $18 million from the NY Mets- even though neither one was good enough to make this year's team. Fans who give wrestling a try may find that it offers all of the excitement of other sports. It is pure joy to watch kids like Penn State's David Taylor, a redshirt freshman who seemed to be without fear as he charged undefeated through the college season and into the NCAA final. Unfortunately for him, that's where he ran into the aforementioned Mr. Jenkins. The low-budget nature of wrestling also makes it an efficient vehicle for charity. Clinton Matter, an AA in the 1990s at the Univ of Penn, joined with a group of friends in 2009 to start an organization called Beat the Streets Philadelphia, which supports youth wrestling programs as well as inner-city high school teams. Mr. Matter, who works on Wall Street and serves as chairman of the organization, reports that he and his friends are supporting programs in Philadelphia and in nearby Camden, N.J., that provide opportunities for 475 wrestlers. They accept grapplers as youn as four years of age, and they don't turn anyone away. ....The kids learn the virtues of discipline, hard work and accountability--all the qualities they'll need as they grow up. They might even help a prosperous America become the next normal.

Many would argue that the open-zone system is similar to the perceived "advantages" of private schools. They are both used as obvious recruiting mechanisms.