Harpeth Invitational Results

[rasslinlite]

The officiating was awful yesterday. The grey haired official with the receding hairline was the one that called the Baker vs Belcher match! Obviously some connection to Harpeth.

 

For the second time today !!!!

Well you come on here a blast the officials in your first post. If you like tell us your name so everybody knows who is talking. It is only fair. Until you put on the striped shirt and and call matches do not blast them. Unless you give us your name. Shame on you.

 

Dave Thomas

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After I saw what went on yesterday why would I post my name? So you can take it out on us all year?

 

No I just thought you might want to MAN UP and say this is who I am and this is what happened. People tend to listen more often when you call out the official when we know your name than to listen to someone with a board name. People will tend to believe you more when they know who you are.

[knuckles1975]

[AFan2]

No I just thought you might want to MAN UP and say this is who I am and this is what happened. People tend to listen more often when you call out the official when we know your name than to listen to someone with a board name. People will tend to believe you more when they know who you are.

 

Rasslinlite I don't blame people for not wanting to tell their name... just like I am not going to either! It is not MANNING UP to want to keep your team from getting hurt in the process of speaking your mind.

 

I guess people will tend to believe you more if you have facts and since you are wanting to call people out lets just do that...

 

I was going to just keep my mouth shut in all this by only mentioning a ref who was bias in the matches Saturday (Gannon)... but since you want to call people out lets just do that! Gannon is EXTREMELY BIAS toward the Rossview Hawks team... How you ask or do you already know Dave? I could go into the whole ugly story of his hatred toward Rossview and the administration at that school or do you just want me to stop here?!

 

You know as well as I do that there are biases by refs... I DO NOT BELIEVE that every ref is bias but there is a handful that are. I do not want to air out the dirty laundry of Gannon's hatred toward Rossview but I witnessed it first hand Saturday at the Harpeth Tourney. On several occasions Gannon made EXTREMELY bad calls against Rossview and as I watched him in other matches the same calls were not made. In the very last match of the night it featured the HWT from Rossview and the HWT from Brentwood Academy...possibly the worse match I have every seen called and Gannon was the Ref. I can go into details of the match but why...it will not change the results but lets just say "Gannon you should be ashamed of yourself!!"

[rasslinlite]

No I just thought you might want to MAN UP and say this is who I am and this is what happened. People tend to listen more often when you call out the official when we know your name than to listen to someone with a board name. People will tend to believe you more when they know who you are.

 

Rasslinlite I don't blame people for not wanting to tell their name... just like I am not going to either! It is not MANNING UP to want to keep your team from getting hurt in the process of speaking your mind.

 

I guess people will tend to believe you more if you have facts and since you are wanting to call people out lets just do that...

 

I was going to just keep my mouth shut in all this by only mentioning a ref who was bias in the matches Saturday (Gannon)... but since you want to call people out lets just do that! Gannon is EXTREMELY BIAS toward the Rossview Hawks team... How you ask or do you already know Dave? I could go into the whole ugly story of his hatred toward Rossview and the administration at that school or do you just want me to stop here?!

 

You know as well as I do that there are biases by refs... I DO NOT BELIEVE that every ref is bias but there is a handful that are. I do not want to air out the dirty laundry of Gannon's hatred toward Rossview but I witnessed it first hand Saturday at the Harpeth Tourney. On several occasions Gannon made EXTREMELY bad calls against Rossview and as I watched him in other matches the same calls were not made. In the very last match of the night it featured the HWT from Rossview and the HWT from Brentwood Academy...possibly the worse match I have every seen called and Gannon was the Ref. I can go into details of the match but why...it will not change the results but lets just say "Gannon you should be ashamed of yourself!!"

 

I have no ties to Mr. Gannon what so ever. I also was not at Harpeth. But if you think there were anything bias or dirty than by all means you should get the tape of the match(s) and send them to the TSSAA. There is no room in wrestling for any of that behavior, the kids, coaches and fans do not deserve that. I hope that you send the film in to the state office if they see anything wrong they will do the wright thing. I believe the person you need to talk at the TSSAA office is Mark Reeves I have meet Mark and he is a very nice man. he will not put up with that. At worse Mr. Gannon should not do anymore Rossview matches.

[BIRD WATCHER]

I'm professionally stating that several officials were making what seemed to me like biased calls..

 

wrestlefan55 and Afan2

 

To help us out here, why don't you describe a few of the calls you feel were wrong. Since wrestlefan 55 is making a professional statement about them surely you can do this. Were they change of control, escape, takedown, out of bounds, stalling, what call was made and why do you think under the rules it was an incorrect call.

[roxgirl]

I have kept my mouth shut during all of this but have been reading this post all day. I am apalled by what all went on at Harpeth yesterday. You want some examples, then here is the best one. The match that was voted BEST MATCH OF THE DAY was the most unfair match I have ever watched.

First round: Takedown by Belcher in the first 20 seconds or so. Spent the rest of the first round with near fall points and Baker on his back the entire time. Ref WOULD NOT call pin when it was obvious Baker was pinned.

Second round: Takedown by Belcher within first 5 seconds. Spent the next 20-30 seconds trying to get a pin called when it was obvious again Baker was pinned. Belcher re-positioned when ref would not call pin. Baker was able to roll him over and pin was called within 3-5 seconds. Score was 10-0 Belcher so it was obvious who dominated the entire match.

Ref's called what they wanted to call, not what was obvious to everyone else.

 

This match was voted BEST MATCH? I would call it sickening and unfair for these kids.

[knuckles1975]

[wrestlefan55]

I also disagreed with the idea of that match as the best match of the day. That award deserves to go to two kids that battle it out in triple overtime, going hard throughout the entire match. Not a match where the ref was biased and obviously biased at that.

 

Did anyone else follow how the kid that belcher wrestled in the finals even made it into them? "Gannon" or whoever the official was, officiated his semi-finals match. I don't know what team he wrestled, but the opposing wrestler was down. In the third period, he got him on his back and he was obviously pinned, as I was sitting in the stands watching, both shoulders down. However, Gannon would not call the pin. The wrestler switched positions, but Gannon wouldn't budge, and the time ran out. The wrestler lost by points. Is it only a coincidence that Gannon officiated this match, obviously helping out the wrestler who opposed Belcher in the finals, and then repeated the same thing during the finals?

[jrichards]

I am glad to see that I am not the only one who walked out of there yesterday feeling cheated!!!! As for you Mr. Thomas, Those kids need to be told before they walk in to that GYM if they do not have a chance. Do not let them go in and get there HOPES UP and walk out the better wrestler but empty HANDED!!!! As for FACTS... There was a match in the 145lb weight class that got called Locking hands... Twice was called for locking hands. He had one hand on the MAT and one arm under his head trying to roll him and got called LOCKING HANDS!! Now I ask you, how can you lock hands if one hand in laying flat on the MAT will trying to push your man over? It was real bad yesterday and alot of kids went home the better wrestler but empty handed!! Way to go REF'S!!!!!!!

[WrestlingGod]

I have kept my mouth shut during all of this but have been reading this post all day. I am apalled by what all went on at Harpeth yesterday. You want some examples, then here is the best one. The match that was voted BEST MATCH OF THE DAY was the most unfair match I have ever watched.

First round: Takedown by Belcher in the first 20 seconds or so. Spent the rest of the first round with near fall points and Baker on his back the entire time. Ref WOULD NOT call pin when it was obvious Baker was pinned.

Second round: Takedown by Belcher within first 5 seconds. Spent the next 20-30 seconds trying to get a pin called when it was obvious again Baker was pinned. Belcher re-positioned when ref would not call pin. Baker was able to roll him over and pin was called within 3-5 seconds. Score was 10-0 Belcher so it was obvious who dominated the entire match.

Ref's called what they wanted to call, not what was obvious to everyone else.

 

This match was voted BEST MATCH? I would call it sickening and unfair for these kids.

Ok I have sat quiet long enough on this issue. I am a referee and I cannot sit here and let everybody bad mouth my peers and coworkers.

 

For years I sat in the stands watching matches yelling, "Hes pinned, hes pinned" and from the stands it really does look like he is pinned. From the refs standpoint, who is better than yours in the stands, as he is a foot away from the action, he may not be. We dont call what is obvious to everybody else, we call what happens on the mat. They are the ones wrestling, we just tell the story to the fans. What you saw was not someone being unfair, it was the ref telling the story of what was happening on the mat, doesnt matter what YOU saw, that was what was happening.

 

Maybe it was voted best match, by the refs by the way (they are the one who votes best match and ow) because they thought the other kid did a fantastic job fighting off his back. I mean based on what you said he fought off his back for three straight periods, sounds like a heckova match to me! One kid couldnt pin the one, and the other was fighting like crazy off his back. And by the way, you may see his shoulders down but his shoulders have to be down for two seconds non stop. Not just you see his shoulders down.

 

We spent hours and hours of training, and still are training! So maybe before you start to criticize a ref on being bias and not calling a match the way you think you see it, just think that maybe its not the way that it is actually going down. And also think that they are people too, so just think what if someone got on here, on their first post ever, just to say that everything you have done in your job was "appalling, sickening, and unfair to everybody". Not cool, and I wont sit back and read you guys bad mouth all these fantastic gentleman. Go up to them and just talk to them, I bet you'll be surprised that they are actual people.

[hawksfan]

John Gannon has ref'd many of our matches at Rossview over the years, and I have never seen him purposely call a match unfairly against one of our kids. I don't think he is biased against Rossview at all. The Heavyweight match could've went either way. Mr. Gannon is a professional, and has always treated our kids fairly.

 

 

I was at Harpeth, and I am just wondering what team wasn't as good as the results say, Knuckles? Would that be Ravenwood, Rossview, BA? Harpeth??

I thought Ravenwood looked very good, and BA looked good for a young team. Harpeth has some pretty strong wrestlers, and Rossview has been working very hard in the off season.

[roxgirl]

I haven't ever had a reason to post until now. My son has been wrestling for six or seven years and have lost several tournaments. We learn from our mistakes and never blame anyone but ourselves. Yesterday's display of blatent misconduct forced me to air my concerns in the only public forum that I know of. I apologize if you are offended by all of us calling out your co-workers and peers but this is the only place I know to air my concerns. I haven't ever had a problem with a ref before to this extreme and know they are doing tough jobs and I do appreciate the job they are doing. When I do my job incorrectly I do get called out for it and expect for them to also. I also continue my education but still make mistakes, they are only human as you so stated. A mistake was made yesterday and when kids are involved it is hard to stand back and keep quiet.