TSSAA Officiating

[TryNotToSuck]

Officiating will get better whenever the politics side is out of the industry, which will never happen. Stop rewarding officials for "marquee games" or state tournaments when all they did was officiate for a long time, doesn't mean they're good. Much rather have a young and upcoming official call games that cares about the game than someone that's old is there to collect a check. But the old person is the one that gets rewarded because he/she is "experienced" (doesn't mean he/she is actually good) while the young one gets screwed.

[soms2]

Need more Dunning's, Self's, Tater's, Lane's, Clark's, and Elsea's out there...

Use them as mentors, those  who even made occasional mistakes, but ALWAYS learned from them to only get better 

Edited February 20, 2023 by soms2

[cobrakid8]

1 hour ago, WrestlingGod said:

Dang man, 8 kids. Seems like you COULD afford to lose one of those nuts.

 

 

I kid, I lost one and still had another. 

Lol, I did too. Now I know it isn’t going to happen again, regular checkups.

[cobrakid8]

1 hour ago, LocalHero said:

If a parent followed me to my car it would not end well so probably a good thing I never plan on reffing. That really is psycho and I hate you had to deal with that. I’ve never even heard of something like that. That’s dumb by the parent because you never know who is concealing. I’d never even dream of something like that but people are crazy I guess. And yeah it took me a couple decades but I finally figured out what caused all those kids lol 

Yeah, that can’t happen, they do not allow you to conceal and carry and most parks you play at also do not allow anything like that even in your car, so if something was to happen and you were to use it sadly you would ALsO be in trouble. Also it happens sadly often in soccer and even in football and basketball, thankfully I’ve never heard of it in wrestling but that also doesn’t mean it’s never happened, sadly parents are crazy and instead of letting their children enjoy their sport and their life they try to live it for their kids instead! I’ve never really been happier then when my youngest said dad they have taken the fun out of soccer for me, can you take me back out of high level select and let me go back to playing rec and if so would you coach me? So that’s what we have done and I absolutely love it. More time spent with him in what he loves at a level he actually enjoys it and without the stress! He can instead stress about his actual job and that is school and keeping good grades he can get a full ride like his brother with those brains and not have to worry about having to play a sport for it.

[LocalHero]

11 minutes ago, cobrakid8 said:

Yeah, that can’t happen, they do not allow you to conceal and carry and most parks you play at also do not allow anything like that even in your car, so if something was to happen and you were to use it sadly you would ALsO be in trouble. Also it happens sadly often in soccer and even in football and basketball, thankfully I’ve never heard of it in wrestling but that also doesn’t mean it’s never happened, sadly parents are crazy and instead of letting their children enjoy their sport and their life they try to live it for their kids instead! I’ve never really been happier then when my youngest said dad they have taken the fun out of soccer for me, can you take me back out of high level select and let me go back to playing rec and if so would you coach me? So that’s what we have done and I absolutely love it. More time spent with him in what he loves at a level he actually enjoys it and without the stress! He can instead stress about his actual job and that is school and keeping good grades he can get a full ride like his brother with those brains and not have to worry about having to play a sport for it.

Glad it has worked out for you and your kid. Have to do what makes them happy. Life isn’t a one size fits all. Two of my boys didn’t really like wrestling. Two of them do. I told the two that didn’t not to do it for me because I wanted them to be happy and do what they love. My other two can’t get enough of it. 

[notyourmomsmom]

6 hours ago, notyourmomsmom said:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YH3CVDX

Please take a few minutes to answer this survey to work toward beginning the process of having competent officials across the state of TN.

Also feel free to leave any other suggestions in the comments.

Thank you to those who answered this both seriously and honestly 

[Chattanothing]

Referee development is a problem in the State of Tennessee, and probably other states as well. We need more of these guys. That aside, there’s a ref or 2 that will literally discuss anything at length with a coach during a match and that has to stop. Every 6 minute match can’t run 10-12 minutes without injury or blood time. I agree in getting a call right but everything does not need to be discussed. Maybe the challenge brick in college wouldn’t be a bad idea but I wouldn’t want unintended consequences of seeing too many things challenged. Just my .02

[cobrakid8]

57 minutes ago, Chattanothing said:

Referee development is a problem in the State of Tennessee, and probably other states as well. We need more of these guys. That aside, there’s a ref or 2 that will literally discuss anything at length with a coach during a match and that has to stop. Every 6 minute match can’t run 10-12 minutes without injury or blood time. I agree in getting a call right but everything does not need to be discussed. Maybe the challenge brick in college wouldn’t be a bad idea but I wouldn’t want unintended consequences of seeing too many things challenged. Just my .02

I agree with a challenge brick type of thing and its also always good for finals matches to make sure to have 2 referees and let them discuss a call when needed and if challenge is thrown to let them discuss it all and maybe even have a video replay. As I have said before, some of these calls in real time can be very challenging with how quick they have to be made.

As far as referee development, that is with every single referee in every single sport out there. There is never enough referee's because this isn't any of our full time jobs, just don't make enough for it to be and parents and coaches sure as heck wouldn't fork out the money to pay enough to make it a full time job. So those of us who did or do it cannot spend a ton of time on it and giving our time for free. Now, wrestling isn't as expensive for a referee as soccer is, you have to buy everything yourself, TSSAA does not provide that, so for soccer I had to have a couple of different shoes and cleats, had to have 2-3 different colors of jerseys, different kind of whistles, other things such as flags and such. Wrestling you pay for the jersey, whistle and wrestling shoes. In soccer it took me a few weekends just to pay for everything and to make back up the costs for training and getting my certification, so I pretty much worked for free until I made those costs back up. So just imagine me also having to come out for continuing education which includes my time and driving to and from and not getting paid to do so. Again, most of these guys are doing this because they love the sport, I never made enough to actually make it where it was a job, in the end it can be sometimes more of a headache than fun because you have to deal with parents and coaches, you have to usually pay someone to do taxes because you are now an independent contractor so you have to make sure to put money back on whatever you made just to pay taxes on that. Truthfully I am glad to not be doing it anymore and the headache it brought, just for things like this because in the end, you are going to end up pushing guys out of the sports and you are going to end up having no matches because you cannot get enough refs to do it. It's been funny to see real competitive matches in football, basketball and soccer(high school and select) have to be cancelled because they were not able to get referee's to do those games. 

[cbg]

Dating myself but officiating was much better when college programs like MTSU, Maryville College, Sewanee, Tennessee Tech, University of Tennessee were alive and well.  No wrestling in college does not guarantee that a former college wrestler will be a great official but it does provide those individuals with a much better understanding of the sport and provide them with exposure to much more highly regarded officials.  My recommendation would be to have a weekend wrestling officials camp (1 session on Friday evening and 3 sessions on Saturday) in the Fall and every official that is allowed to officiate the state tournament series must attend this clinic.  This camp would be conducted by top high school officials from Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania or New Jersey.  What Tennessee wrestling officials need more than anything is a fresh perspective as to how they should hone their craft.  If an official is not willing to spend the money to attend an officials camp once a year you probably don’t want them officiating in the state tournament.  

[cobrakid8]

1 minute ago, cbg said:

Dating myself but officiating was much better when college programs like MTSU, Maryville College, Sewanee, Tennessee Tech, University of Tennessee were alive and well.  No wrestling in college does not guarantee that a former college wrestler will be a great official but it does provide those individuals with a much better understanding of the sport and provide them with exposure to much more highly regarded officials.  My recommendation would be to have a weekend wrestling officials camp (1 session on Friday evening and 3 sessions on Saturday) in the Fall and every official that is allowed to officiate the state tournament series must attend this clinic.  This camp would be conducted by top high school officials from Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania or New Jersey.  What Tennessee wrestling officials need more than anything is a fresh perspective as to how they should hone their craft.  If an official is not willing to spend the money to attend an officials camp once a year you probably don’t want them officiating in the state tournament.  

https://www.becomeareferee.com/tennessee/#:~:text=Candidates must be 18 years,referee for the upcoming season.

 

This isn't counting the cost of actually taking the tests and getting your certification. They already require a state meeting as well as local meetings and those you aren't getting paid for. So when are parents going to start fronting that money for referee's to be able to attend? I mean I am not driving myself up to Nashville, paying my own hotel and staying a few days and having to PAY for the opportunity to do that LOL. I mean I already pay a fee to even become a referee in TN, to have a background check ran and also for the certification. All said and done before I even start I'm 300-400 in the hole.  I will also say, I made a lot more money when I was doing soccer for select and not schools. My oldest was a soccer official also with middle and high and he thought about doing other sports but in the end he stuck for years with just soccer because they are down so many referee's in all sports that he would have 4-5 offers for games at the same time and could pick and choose those he wanted to actually work. I enjoyed doing wrestling for the time I did it, but make no mistake about it, I only did it because I absolutely love this sport, it ended up being time away from my own family and that is what you are asking from these officials but than also complaining about them and the calls they make you do not agree with. My oldest finally quit and went with a regular job and my youngest who is 14 now has asked about doing it also(soccer allows 13 year olds to get their certs) however that also means I will have to do it again because someone has to drive him there and back and I'm not going through the trouble again, not even worth it.

[Mason422]

Serious question to the folks that keep making the type of comments that if you don’t like the officiating that they should just go do it themselves. Why do you feel that way?  Don’t you think that officials should be very proficient and professional while doing their “job” that we get paid to do?   
 

Name me another profession that we say that about?  If you go to a restaurant and your food isn’t cooked properly are you not allowed to complain?  If you do should you have to become a cook or a restaurant owner?   If a doctor doesn’t diagnose you correctly are you gonna go to medical school?  If your teacher does a bad job with your child should you become a teacher?  Not trying to be a jerk at all I just truly don’t understand the mentality. People should be allowed to have a reasonable expectation to have quality officiating. 
 

We hold every profession to a high standard, so why not refs?  
 

Having said all of that, I welcome the coaches and parents to discuss calls properly with me when time allows. Why wouldn’t I want to listen to them and get their perspective?  I have learned a lot over the years by asking questions and getting asked questions. 
 

Bottom line, rules are changing all of the time and as a ref I feel it is my job to stay current. The day I am not willing to continue to study and get better is the day I will stop being an offical.  So, parents and coaches if you see this short bald guy at a tournament feel free to give me some feedback if you think I can do something better. We may not agree but I will promise you that I will take a hard look at it.  
 

Sid Mason 

[ladyvol31]

19 hours ago, Mitch24 said:

Did not read the survey but on a serious note, I feel that the cross face into an open mouth issue needs to be addressed by the powers that be. I don’t think it should be considered flagrant misconduct when a wrestler has a forearm shoved into his mouth. I understand that it can be hard for a ref to determine if a wrestler actually bit down sometimes but the flagrant misconduct call should be erased if the ref doesn’t think it was intentional. This  happened to a young man at the section 4 tournament this weekend in the finals. Felt really bad for that young man who worked all year to qualify for state and then had a forearm shoved into his mouth and now can’t compete at the state tournament. Would love to see this problem addressed. 

I could not agree with this more!  I have known kids this happened too and it is devastating for them.  I am not sure if wrestlers can wear a mouthpiece, that that would be a "quick" solution.