How does everyone feel the reffing was this year so far? Any specific examples of bad or good calls? What refs have been the best/worst? I'm not looking to bash anyone, just curious about everyone elses opinion...

I've been choked multiple times. FULL OUT choke, refs looked right at it and I've pointed to my throat saying "I'm Choking" so what do they do? The only thing that seems logical! Give him 3 back points. Yes it was clear it was a choke my chin was over his arm

if you can talk to tell him that you're choking, then you aren't actually choking.

Also if you werent on your back in the first place you wouldnt have to worry about choking or giving up back points. And there are plenty of legal ways to choke someone

i shot a kid out of bounds and i got called for stalling, and when my coach questioned it the ref told my coach that i was lucky that i didnt get called for fleeing the mat.

The guy who reffed the Eagle Classic finals at 171 and 119 that screwed Brainard and Tilbe out of their titles. He was also at the NWC's and completely blew another match. A RHAM kid (in neutral) spun behind his opponent standing, then brought him to ALL FOURS for about three seconds and never got 2. He ended up losing 2-1. Is there any way to get a list of the refs who were at the NWC's?

santiago has reffed more of killingly's matches than any other one ref this year amd i think his calls have been the most consistant out of any of the other refs i have seen this year and i actually enjoy when he refs our matches cause i know he wont screw up a close like other refs have done

Santiago is a good ref but because he does a lot of college matches, he isn't very good at out-of-bounds calls and he calls pins a little too fast.

I've seen some questionable calls this year, but remember: a ref has to watch many things at once and make the right split-second decision every time. If he does his job perfectly, no one says anything, but if he makes one or two human mistakes, a coach is down his throat. Anyone who has wrestled or coached out of state, including New Englands, will have to agree that our refs are as good or better than any other state's.

I have a saying:

"You pay peanuts, you get monkeys".

HS wrestling is like any other HS sport, you have the good, the bad and the ugly.

Watch college wrestling on the Big Ten channel or on ESPN, ESPNu or some of the Fox sports channels. You want to see how good refing is....these guys call stalling in a heartbeat, call stalemate just a fast, you can have only your pinky toe in bounds and you are still in bounds and more importantly they CONSTANTLY talk to the wrestlers to let them know whats going on. Commonly heard from the refs during matches are:

Let's get going
Watch the elbow
Wrestle center!!
You're gonna get hit for stallin'....make a move...MAKE A MOVE!
Your good! Your good! (when close to out of bounds)

You know, these are little things that any ref can do but most of ours choose not to...


Santiago (or the "Rock" as I call him) is one of the best...

Like I said though, it is no different then any other HS sport right now...

Master-o-t-o,

As you point out, college rules are different from high school rules, and so are the standards for stalling, out of bounds, a slam, unnecesssary roughness, etc. etc., so you can't judge high school officiating based on what you see at the college level. Based on what I've seen in other states and conversations I've had with high school officials across the country, I will say again that our referees, for the most part, are as good as any anywhere.

Regarding "The Rock," I agree that he is a good official, but he recently officiated one of our matches and his out of bounds calls were very poor. I'm not saying this as sour grapes because most of the bad calls either helped us or made no difference, but it's what I saw and the opposing coach felt the same way.

Good points on everything and I totally agree. Certainly college rules are different, doesn't matter, they can blow those matches too (I still believe they are a great examples of how to be a great wrestling ref though). The point is the higher you get in organized competition, generally the better the officiating gets.

OK, the Rock blows a call every once in a while, he just does it less then average (my opinion)...and he has a great personality.

I will say this, I have done some officiating (not wrestling) in the past, it is much harder then the average person thinks, in any sport. I remember the first time I did a baseball game, I thought "how hard can this be?"...well, I felt the heat, and it was just a Little League game...

well i didn tactually say im choking it was like *gurrgle* choke *gurrgle*

i got called 4fleeing the mat when i was on bottom and behind in point i wasnt even trying to go out of the circle the kid was pushing me out

interesting note. ive seen kids deliberately flee. like in a stance stepping out because it "looked" as if someone was going to shoot. no fleeing call

Bump

I've seen kids try and pretend they're choking just to get out of a headlock, so some refs might try to be sure before they actually stop the move, cuz you can fake a gurgling noise, not saying that you did, but ive seen it on more than a couple occasions. Also, there was a ref that i had bout a month ago that was pretty terrible at watching for injury. I hit a kid with a butcher, and when i bumped his hips, he landed on his shoulder and it popped out. The kid grabbed his shoulder and started to scream. I looked up at the ref and said " I think he's really hurt" and the ref just said keep wrestling. That injury ended the kid's season. They forfeited the match after the first period, and after i shook the coach's hand, the ref grabbed me and said, " you keep wrestling until i tell you to stop wrestling, got it?"

Stonewalljax,

You did the right thing. Normally I'd say to always keep wrestling until the ref says to stop, but the primary consideration in any sport is the safety of the players. You probably kept his injury from being even worse by reacting the way you did.