Lets get wrestlers on the mat as officials!

Maybe reach out to all the college coaches in Ohio and see if they can pass on to all the college kids. Maybe you can snagged a few college kids trying to make a couple bucks in their summer free time on weekends and they continue reffing after they graduate.
 
My son is a 20 year old former wrestler who lives in akron canton area. He is interested in getting into becoming a ref any advice?
 
We need a totally new rule book. If you go strictly by the wording alone, you should be awarded a takedown simply by sprawling on someone. Nobody reading this accepts that of course so why not write rules and descriptions that make sense and are more comprehensive? Just some thoughts.
 
We should stop starting officials at the buddy level. They get run out by crazy parents that are out of hand. Start them on a mat with an assistant to make sure calls are correct. Stop feeding them to the sharks who think their kid is the next Burroughs!
 
I believe there is a long weekend class the weekend of Wrestle Against Autism. The graduating class gets mat time at the tournament with 1 or 2 (usually more per mat) seasoned veteran officials assisting and critiquing them. I don't know about sign ups or scheduling other than WAA is 4/16.
 
Chesterlabs43 said:
We should stop starting officials at the buddy level. They get run out by crazy parents that are out of hand. Start them on a mat with an assistant to make sure calls are correct. Stop feeding them to the sharks who think their kid is the next Burroughs!
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That is a great idea except that the options are not as easy as you might think.
To your point, there are many parents who are a little crazy but there are also coaches who think they are Cael Sanderson. They might have wrestled 10 or 15 years ago and think they know the rules. Hint: They are generally wrong. In the same way their wrestlers are learning how to wrestle, our officials are learning how to officiate. If the coaches are such that they chase the new officials away, who is going to do the matches going forward?
I am not too sure what level you are suggesting they start at. Maybe MS or JV except that getting MS officials is hard at the best of times. The time of day when their matches are scheduled makes it very difficult. Who is going to pay for two officials for a MS dual meet? Answer is no one.
JV matches might be okay except that very few schools field a JV line up.
Varsity matches? Not going to happen for several reasons the first of which is that no varsity coach wants brand new, never tested officials doing their match. As an assigner, I would never do that to a new guy.
For two years my Association has been funding new officials working with an experienced official in varsity matches. I actually got the idea from the Steel Valley Association and our membership voted to do this. We pay $40 to a new official to work with an experienced official and I have to say that it advances their development at least 2 or 3 years. As long as we have the funds, I see this program continuing.
All this said, if you have any thoughts or ideas, please feel free to DM me. I am happy to listen to any ideas you might have.
Jim
 
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