PABacon

I just came he from Pennsylvania almost a year and a half ago.. Oct, 2016... been involved with wrestling and football as a coach for around 10 years, was a wrestling ref for 5 yrs. Wrestling is a little bigger in Pennsylvania, just about every school wrestles and most schools have a youth club and there are independent clubs all over. I've been involved with all situations, wrestled all over, all year round and I can tell you I've never needed to waste money on a USA wrestling card until I came to this state. I really think its rediculous and an unnecessary money grab and may even hurt the sport here. First of all, I went online went through some BS, paid some money... and then last season was told for a tournament I needed a gold members card or silver or something stupid . .an upgrade anyways to be on the floor at a certain tournament. Ultimately I chose not to go to that tournament. I spend enough time and money on wrestling, I have insurance on my kids and I don't need a second insurance provider. This year I thought I did everything , thought I paid, but turns out I paid for my kids and not myself and mine had expired and I still needed to do something else online and again... I give up. If I need a usa card someone else can coach my kid, I've got way too much going on with my large family to throw money and time at something that makes no sense to me.

I was a ref for 5 years in Pennsylvania and it's not easy to catch every call. Unfortunately there's no instant replay and they can't watch your video and I'm not even sure it should come to that at the high school level. I've been on both sides of the line ref/coach and while I've seen some poor reffing the coaches don't always have the best interpretation of the rules and definitely don't have the best angle of view from the coaches chair either so calm is all we can hope for and hopefully everyone learns from their mistakes. The poor reffing I see the most is generally from being out of position (missing locked hands and not seeing pins quick enough) and poor use of signals (using signals that don't exist I see a lot!! or not making them clear for the table workers trying to keep score) and not being vocal enough and taking eyes off of the wrestlers and looking at the table while making calls <-gotta trust your signal and trust the table sees it and keep your eyes on the action... all and all I've seen some good reffing here and there but there's a lot of young guys (that's a good thing) and hopefully we're doing some sort of training and meeting to work with them and they stick with it and get better with experience. All that being said...I believe I'm going to dive into the pit next season, put the stripes back on and take the heat!! So be ready to yell at me all you want, I feel nothing and tell your kids not to even roll across their backs because I love to slap the mat!!!

Just my opinion but this would stink. State duels in other states lasts 2 days so I'm not worried about 1 day going past 2:00. I guess for the losing teams you might think hindsight you wish you could have got out of there earlier but to me the most exciting part of the whole day is the challenge between the two champs Big vs Small! Take that match away and honestly it could seem like a dull quick meaningless day even for the champs. It's supposed to be a championship, not a race home. Just sayin.

120 #5 Gabe Adams defeated #3 Brandon Miller at UC Duels I believe. I cant recall the score

I never said anything in my first post that he was sick all morning or the night before. I didn't even stay in the hotel with them the night before so my first contact with him was in the morning. He seemed fine before and after weigh ins and actually looked real good and like his normal self until he got up from the headlock and next thing we know he's in injury time and headed to the garbage can. Not sure where I contradict myself other than maybe my second post I did call it a stomach virus... I'm not a doctor, I could have called it a belly ache or whatever. I'm not a doctor and he never needed a doctor. He threw up, therfor he was dehydrated and needed fluids. First thing the trainer or medic on hand said was, could be something you ate. I've been coaching 7 or 8 years, I've been a referee for the last 5. I watched a kid puke his way all the way to states last year. They claimed he had food poisoning.... I'm not making claims, I don't know. I know in wrestling there's no next man up like football or other team sports. If you sit your team loses 6 points every round. In wrestling that's why we say wrestling is like life. I don't get a day off because my tummy hurts. You think he was the only one there wrestling that had any issues? You want to sit your kid at the first sign something is up and play doctor over an upset stomach at a state tournament? Maybe that's how you think it should be here in Kentucky but I'm not from here. I've watched kids break fingers, pull muscles, dislocate limbs and bleed all over the place in a regular duel meet that meant nothing and keep wrestling. I also have 9 kids, oldest two in the military and those girls are tuffer than some of these boys and when one kid comes home from school sick I get prepared for them all to get sick. I don't go crying to the school because someone must have sent their kid to school sick and got my kid sick. I apologise if my kids stomach ache,if it was a virus he apparently got from someone, got cought by anyone else but since he felt a little better Sunday with rest and felt completely great today and went to practice I'm going to assume it wasn't the plague and everyone will be alright. Good luck explaining to your team that your going to forfiet little Johnnie's weight class all day at the State Tournament because he doesn't feel 100%. Maybe that's why someone wasn't State Champs, maybe they sat every kid that didn't feel they could give it 100%. I'm just going to venture a guess that my kid wasn't the only one there out of all those wrestlers that didn't feel 100%. my wife is probably right, I shouldn't have said anything at all and shouldn't be on these forums because I have this thing where I say how I feel. I could maybe make up a name and start discussing things and pretend I'm not Sam Bacon's dad like some people do. That's just not me to make up some name, I like people to know who they are talking to. After all, I thought this was a wrestling forum but I always forget that not everyone sees wrestling as the sport I do and not everyone tries to raise their kids like I do. I'm not perfect but I won't apologize for me or my kid fighting through a little adversity. Maybe while they are checking weight and doing skin checks they can stick a thermometer up their but and have them fill out a survey on how they are feeling that day too and we can put a stop to athletes suck it up mentality and instead think about yourselves and not the team. I know I didn't stay away from my son, I hugged him and high fived him all day and I didn't get sick... So maybe it was something he ate. I feel better already. Guess no more forums for me, the wife says. I'll see you all in 3 weeks.

First off, no one was aware he had anything wrong with him. After his first injury time I had thought It was from getting squeezed and maybe a loss of blood flow as the kid had him right around the neck in a head lock for a good 10/15 seconds He even said he didn't know what was wrong. He had no cough and no temp. For all we could tell it was from drinking or eating too much in the morning or. Even his first thought was something he ate. For all I know, still was something he ate. Trainer cleared him and I'm no doctor. If it was something worse he wasn't saying. Sorry if my kid didn't want to quit over a belly ache and that confuses you. If we thought or were aware that he was contagious or had something real serious he wouldn't have been drilling with our kids either.

Woh, slow down there ref. I never said Sam was a stud. He hasn't earned that status yet. Sam's just a tuff kid who works hard and on any given day can beat anyone but he's too inconsistent to be called a "stud". A stud would have went out Saturday with a stomach virus, dehydration and a bumb elboy and refused to lose and won all his matches. My kid works his tail off in and out of practice most of the time but he's got to learn to put it to use every time he's on the mat to be called a stud. I've got 4 boys and only one of them is a "stud". My bold prediction is that Major Bacon will be a 5 timer but he's only 5 so I have awhile before you can call me full of it on that one, lmao. The only thing I was saying is I'm pretty sure Sam will look a lot better in 3 weeks than he did Saturday, I was just proud he tuffed it out. What he does will be up to him and I wouldn't count him out. I think you're right, 120 is too close to call and I don't see anyone head over the rest and I think it will be fun to watch.

I don't really care if Sam Bacon is ranked, don't bother me. But I will say I was very proud of him stepping up this weekend. Every kid he wrestled was ranked in the top 15 and he took an Injury time to go puke in a garbage can his first match against (I can't remember) spent 10 minutes after at the garbage can. Won over Haverstick who was ranked ahead of him 19-8 and yes, lost to Roth (don't remember the score) but beat him this year when healthy. Pinned his next apponent (can't remember) and hurt his arm, think he blew a bursa sack or something below his elbow, swelled up and wasn't going to wrestle the last one against wheeler but changed his mind for his team. Was a rough day for him as he had no gas past the first period and you can rank him where you want or not at all. He won't make excuses, he's not that way. He lost his matches fair and square and give Roth and Wheeler all the credit in the world, they're tuff boys. But I'm pretty sure Sam Bacon hasn't taken any steps backwards since he took Wells into overtime, who seems to be your number one. Not complaining, whining or making excuses, again I'm proud of the weekend he had. I ain't saying he would have won either one of the matches he lost Saturday but I have no doubt he'll look a little better losing them in 3 weeks Should be fun! Gotta love post season, see you all there

herd of Bacons came in from Pennsylvania.