GL494

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Same as always. 

2 pts advancement in Championship 

1pt advancement in Consolation

Bonus points 

2 for pin dQ ect

1 1/2 for Tech

1/2 for major

and placement points. 

1st 16

2nd 12

3rd 9

4th 7

5th 5

6th 3

7th 2

8th 1

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24 minutes ago, grappler-of-old said:

Same as always. 

2 pts advancement in Championship 

1pt advancement in Consolation

Bonus points 

2 for pin dQ ect

1 1/2 for Tech

1/2 for major

and placement points. 

1st 16

2nd 12

3rd 9

4th 7

5th 5

6th 3

7th 2

8th 1

Thanks for the info. So it wouldn’t matter if it were a 32 or 16 man bracket? They both have the chance to score the same amount of points ?

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1 hour ago, Elite Training Center KY said:

I will agree with Ranger on the above. The one person that I will say I saw improve throughout the year a TON was Blake. We got into (looking back) a hilarious exchange at a dual over a call that I didn't agree with. He then took a team point which looking back was almost worth the joking comment I made. The one thing he did do great at state was always moving to be in position. I think that is one big area of concern overall with refs. Also in about 5 different matches I saw the same young ref call "two takedown" after guys sat in a position that DID NOT CHANGE for about 20 seconds. I would call the guy out by name if I knew it because I think being straight forward is the only way to ever improve. 

I couldn’t imagine a Boston getting into it with an official…. Haha

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On 2/27/2022 at 11:00 AM, The Deputy said:

 

I wonder if it’s a coincidence that the official lives in Georgetown and the Great Crossing kid benefited from his poor decision? This guy for years has been pulling this junk and until recently only been invited back to officiate the state tournament. A few years back he was only a table worker at the state tournament because of poor officiating on the regional and state level in years prior. Are we in that bad of shape in Kentucky to bring him back to officiate the post season? What he did to this kid should be investigated and he shouldn’t be allowed to officiate the post season again. 

There are 86 liscensed officials in the WHOLE state of KY. So please do myself and all other officials a favor and get your liscense and join us on the mat since you are a rules expert! Look forward to having you join our ranks and becoming a member of the KWOA. Work your way up the ranks and become a state championship official yourself. 

 

Thanks

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On 2/27/2022 at 11:48 AM, GentleBeard said:

The reffing was truly atrocious all weekend. Extremely inconsistent. A kid gets DQ’d for stalling after having scored 15 points in 4.5 minutes? Whether or not it was by the book, that 157 pound match should have been decided in OT. There are some things you let kids decide. Especially reading the body language of both kids. They were slow to call takedowns and missed an abundance of calls - not just human error misses which we all agree happens to everyone. There was an unsportsmanlike called for jamming an underhook “too hard”. They called “fleeing the mat” when a bottom guy (who was losing) stood up and was run out of bounds. I’m pretty sure the bottom kid wanted to get out and tie it up instead of running out of bounds. The logic didn’t make sense. These refs either 1) haven’t wrestled or 2) don’t practice their craft in the way it needs to be done in order to perform well in big matches. 
 

One thing my home state does is they rank refs based on surveys at the end of every dual and tournament. Coaches fill them out and data is stored at the Athletic Association. Only the highest rated refs consistently throughout the season are given the opportunity to ref at state - regardless of experience. It has worked out well and doesn’t seem like a big ask. Also, recruiting ex-wrestlers who haven’t been out of the sport for very long could be mutually beneficial. 
 

Not sure what the best answer is, but the last 4 years have been some of the worst state tournaments I’ve ever competed or coached.

I like your idea of the rankings. The issue we have with recruiting is that no ones to do it anymore. They see the way fans and coaches treat new refs and they would rather not deal with that. In the past years we get a few recent grads for a season and the. They go become a coach. Look at most programs and see how many coaches are in there ranks between youth, middle school, high school, girls...there are a lot of coaches out there at these levels that have been officials for a season or 2. They would rather coach than be belittled by coaches or patents for a low wage. 

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It is growing pains.  To grow the sport we need more middle and Youth programs.  Girls wrestling has been increasing.  All of these programs need coaches.  There is not enough to go around.  >

Many Youth and Middle school coaches are Dads.  These Dads move on when their kids move on and then a coach needs to be replaced.  

More kids go to college with little time to referee when they also have a full or part time job.

I don't know the answer, but this is the situation we are in now. 

The stalling situation is the same every year.  They don't call the quick stall all year then call it in the post season.  (Has been happening in the 35+ years I have been around)

The Herron call was wrong only in that it was not called sooner.  I was sitting behind the action and noticed it right away, the assistant referee noticed it and told the head official then he started counting.  However it looked like he released the foot prior to the 5 count but Trinity did not straighten his leg.  (Just my 2 cents on it) Tough decision to make.  

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18 minutes ago, Wrestling247365 said:

I like your idea of the rankings.

I know many many years ago there use to be a grade card the head coach could fill out after a competition.  I don't think coaches used it much, unless they had a complaint, so they got rid of it. This was way back when Don Salyers was still the head official. 

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Consistency is what is needed most. I was only at Semi state 2 but saw Several matches were one referee would not call stalling when the bottom Man stood up and was not returned to the mat and then a referee on the next mat over would call it.  very confusing for the kids. Also watching a referee call pins at the “state tournament”  while standing up and tilting his head so he can kind of see what is going on is very disturbing. I see that general lack of effort as an insult to all the kids hard work and the sport itself.

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I think there are very simple solutions to these issues regarding refs. However, there needs to be a common ground and coaches and refs have to meet in the middle. Coaches should, and most likely will, be more patient with refs if they know refs are working hard and communicating better.
 

1) Maybe have a coaches meeting at the state tournament like we do before every other tournament to clear up any hazy questions.


2) Maybe region refs could show up to their region coaches meetings before the season and not just at the state coaches meeting in September. This would allow each region to at least meet those refs outside of intense situations/competitions.

3) Have a 5 question survey that holds refs accountable by the coaches, by example.

4) I don’t know if there’s a monetary incentive to ref at state, but if refs have high enough or consistent enough rankings throughout the season, there should be. 

Just some ideas. But I don’t want to be that guy that complains without having solutions to throw at the wall to see what sticks.

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33 minutes ago, GentleBeard said:

I think there are very simple solutions to these issues regarding refs. However, there needs to be a common ground and coaches and refs have to meet in the middle. Coaches should, and most likely will, be more patient with refs if they know refs are working hard and communicating better.
 

1) Maybe have a coaches meeting at the state tournament like we do before every other tournament to clear up any hazy questions.


2) Maybe region refs could show up to their region coaches meetings before the season and not just at the state coaches meeting in September. This would allow each region to at least meet those refs outside of intense situations/competitions.

3) Have a 5 question survey that holds refs accountable by the coaches, by example.

4) I don’t know if there’s a monetary incentive to ref at state, but if refs have high enough or consistent enough rankings throughout the season, there should be. 

Just some ideas. But I don’t want to be that guy that complains without having solutions to throw at the wall to see what sticks.

Accountability is important. However, it always seems to be from the standpoint of negativity. As in, "let's catch the ref doing something wrong" Nobody points out the literally thousands of calls a ref gets right during the course of a tournament. It's always about the few they get wrong (many of which aren't wrong, or are at least very subjective). And even if a ref gets 99.9 percent of the calls right, he's a complete  turd for getting one wrong. When talking about ref's performance it's always about wanting to hammer them for a mistake. The word accountability is never used positively, or ever in regards to the behavior of parents, coaches or wrestlers towards officials. Perfection is demanded from refs, but not from anybody else. And here's the problem with survey's for coaches to evaluate ref's performance.....coaches aren't always right either, and many only see things with a biased view towards their wrestler. 

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34 minutes ago, rjs4470 said:

Accountability is important. However, it always seems to be from the standpoint of negativity. As in, "let's catch the ref doing something wrong" Nobody points out the literally thousands of calls a ref gets right during the course of a tournament. It's always about the few they get wrong (many of which aren't wrong, or are at least very subjective). And even if a ref gets 99.9 percent of the calls right, he's a complete  turd for getting one wrong. When talking about ref's performance it's always about wanting to hammer them for a mistake. The word accountability is never used positively, or ever in regards to the behavior of parents, coaches or wrestlers towards officials. Perfection is demanded from refs, but not from anybody else. And here's the problem with survey's for coaches to evaluate ref's performance.....coaches aren't always right either, and many only see things with a biased view towards their wrestler. 

Everything about this is spot on.

Some of the coaches out there are flat out abusive towards refs.  I’m not just talking wrestling.  
The spectators aren’t much better. My son who did go to watch state told me that a woman from North Hardin’s group of spectators was screaming F bombs and wishing death on the official in the 157 match.  What the world!?

I don’t think there is a great answer for the ref situation.  There are always going to be spectators and even coaches who don’t know the rules and are going to blow gaskets over officials. Maybe consistency is the best answer or hope we can get?

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1 hour ago, rjs4470 said:

Accountability is important. However, it always seems to be from the standpoint of negativity. As in, "let's catch the ref doing something wrong" Nobody points out the literally thousands of calls a ref gets right during the course of a tournament. It's always about the few they get wrong (many of which aren't wrong, or are at least very subjective). And even if a ref gets 99.9 percent of the calls right, he's a complete  turd for getting one wrong. When talking about ref's performance it's always about wanting to hammer them for a mistake. The word accountability is never used positively, or ever in regards to the behavior of parents, coaches or wrestlers towards officials. Perfection is demanded from refs, but not from anybody else. And here's the problem with survey's for coaches to evaluate ref's performance.....coaches aren't always right either, and many only see things with a biased view towards their wrestler. 

 

1 hour ago, rjs4470 said:

Accountability is important. However, it always seems to be from the standpoint of negativity. As in, "let's catch the ref doing something wrong" Nobody points out the literally thousands of calls a ref gets right during the course of a tournament. It's always about the few they get wrong (many of which aren't wrong, or are at least very subjective). And even if a ref gets 99.9 percent of the calls right, he's a complete  turd for getting one wrong. When talking about ref's performance it's always about wanting to hammer them for a mistake. The word accountability is never used positively, or ever in regards to the behavior of parents, coaches or wrestlers towards officials. Perfection is demanded from refs, but not from anybody else. And here's the problem with survey's for coaches to evaluate ref's performance.....coaches aren't always right either, and many only see things with a biased view towards their wrestler. 

Those that think accountability is negative probably need to adjust their perspective. I’ve had to check myself as a coach. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a desire to be better. Rating systems should be objective and unbiased towards coaches as well as refs. That’s why I think there needs to be a give and take. The current situation isn’t working for anyone. I just think we all need to be solutions oriented rather than divisive. I can’t stand whining (complaining without solutions). There’s an answer to every problem. 

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8 hours ago, Wrestling247365 said:

There are 86 liscensed officials in the WHOLE state of KY. So please do myself and all other officials a favor and get your liscense and join us on the mat since you are a rules expert! Look forward to having you join our ranks and becoming a member of the KWOA. Work your way up the ranks and become a state championship official yourself. 

 

Thanks

We don’t need all 86 at the state tournament. Just the best 10-12. How do they determine which ones have the privilege of reffing the state tournament? Is there currently criteria to determine that? When I don’t notice a ref in a match, that’s usually a good thing. In any event, I’m trying to figure out how to come to a solution to solve the majority of the issues and the divisiveness between coaches and refs. Bitching about the past achieves nothing….on both sides.

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9 hours ago, GentleBeard said:

 

Those that think accountability is negative probably need to adjust their perspective. I’ve had to check myself as a coach. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a desire to be better. Rating systems should be objective and unbiased towards coaches as well as refs. That’s why I think there needs to be a give and take. The current situation isn’t working for anyone. I just think we all need to be solutions oriented rather than divisive. I can’t stand whining (complaining without solutions). There’s an answer to every problem. 

I'm not saying accountability is a problem, or is in itself negative. My only point is I'm not necessarily certain referees accountability should fall in the hands of coaches. I get coaches having the ability to scratch an official they've had a problem with (although with so few refs, you can't scratch all of them). But I've seen coaches make big stinks about a call that was correct because they themselves didn't understand the rule/see it correctly. I've been there myself....there have been plenty of times I've gone back and watched film and realized I was the one who got it wrong. I guess what it comes down to is I'm not a fan of coaches holding that many of the cards in evaluating officials, especially right after an event when things are still heated. Just because you're a coach, doesn't mean you are qualified to be judging/rating an official. And I've never seen a perfect official (or coach, or player, or spectator) at any level, and focusing and being hyper critical on every single mistake, while ignoring the 99.99% of them correct is not going to do anything to attract people to the job. No matter how much accountability you have, they still aren't going to get every call right. 

I don't mean to make this sound like we need to feel sorry for the officials, or that it's ok when they screw up. Personally, I don't feel like they screw up nearly as much as many think they do. But I also know there is an evaluation system, and I've seen many refs get reviewed by their assignors. And I think they are aware of who the good officials are, and I've seen them counsel officials who need to improve. So I'm not sure we need heightened accountability, nor do we need to grind officials over every call. 

Here's the big issue as I see it, and I don't have a solution, so sorry if I'm whining ;-). No accountability system is going to be effective until we have more officials. As it stands, the truly bad officials CAN'T be held accountable, because there isn't enough officials. The few who aren't so good, have to keep working because we need them. I really believe the accountability system that is in place would work just fine if we could just stop giving the less proficient officials so many jobs. That being said, there are WAY more good officials than bad, and I can only think that tightening accountability on all officials, and making a hard job even harder, will likely chase more of the good guys away. The ultimate solution to this problem starts with getting more guys and gals into stripes, not holding officials feet to the fire for every call they make.

 

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11 hours ago, rjs4470 said:

Accountability is important. However, it always seems to be from the standpoint of negativity. As in, "let's catch the ref doing something wrong" Nobody points out the literally thousands of calls a ref gets right during the course of a tournament. It's always about the few they get wrong (many of which aren't wrong, or are at least very subjective). And even if a ref gets 99.9 percent of the calls right, he's a complete  turd for getting one wrong. When talking about ref's performance it's always about wanting to hammer them for a mistake. The word accountability is never used positively, or ever in regards to the behavior of parents, coaches or wrestlers towards officials. Perfection is demanded from refs, but not from anybody else. And here's the problem with survey's for coaches to evaluate ref's performance.....coaches aren't always right either, and many only see things with a biased view towards their wrestler. 

We need a way to evaluate officials after every competition.  Often when we compete in other states the officials are giving out their 'number' so coaches can evaluate them.  The officials with the highest ratings through the year are selected for the post season/state tournament.  This is pretty common sense in my opinion.  

If you take pride in being an official I imagine you would also like to be selected to work the state tournament.  A rating process would create competition.  Competition incentives people to improve.  If you don't improve you don't get selected.  How is this difficult to understand? 

Perfection is not demanded from officials.  Competency is demanded from officials during the post season.  Because there is no evaluation officials are an untouchable class in the KY wrestling community and have zero incentive to improve outside of their own intrinsic motivation. If you have been officiating for 10, 20, 30 years there probably isn't a whole lot of motivation to improve your skills.  This is how we get incompetent officials at the state tournament. eh hem, stalling, stalling, stalling, stalling, stalling, dq! 

Your reasoning is flawed regarding coaches evaluating officials.  Lets say an official works 6 tournaments and 6 duals through the season(I know most are doing much more especially if you include middle school/youth).  Lets say there is an average of 10 teams across those tournaments and only 2 teams per dual meet. That's 72 evaluations during the season.  If we don't incentivize/penalize coaches for doing/not doing the evaluations maybe we get 75% submitted.  So on the low end we would have 54 evaluations to build an aggregate. Doing this would create a pretty clear picture of an officials competency. There will be outliers for sure. Especially if a coach is pissed off about a match, but 30 pissed off coaches doing evaluations is not an anomaly, it is a pattern. 

If I am an official who is not selected for post season and/or is not happy with my ranking I am probably going to do some self reflection and put more effort into improving my skills, mechanics, understanding of the rules, wrestling positions, etc. 

I am not even sure the KHSAA would need to be involved. I think it is possible for the official's association to do this on their own.  Create a google form specific to each official.  All submissions for that official will be aggregated and the data/comments used to rank them.  It could be more intricate than this, but I just thought of the most low effort/cost effective way to do it.  

Coaches talk about officials.  We have some good ones for sure and there are some young officials I think have real promise, but there are a few that are SOOOOOOO bad they diminish our sport's credibility and that is a problem we need to address. 

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1 hour ago, rjs4470 said:

But I also know there is an evaluation system, and I've seen many refs get reviewed by their assignors. And I think they are aware of who the good officials are, and I've seen them counsel officials who need to improve. So I'm not sure we need heightened accountability, nor do we need to grind officials over every call.  

Hard to evaluate your buddies/peers effectively.  I am not saying assignors shouldn't be a part of the process, but they shouldn't be the only form of evaluating officials either.  I was talking to my high school coach yesterday and he was pretty blown away that we don't have a way to evaluate officials. We are way behind the state he coaches in, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing everything we can to elevate the level of wrestling here.  

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32 minutes ago, GooglyMoogly said:

We need a way to evaluate officials after every competition.  Often when we compete in other states the officials are giving out their 'number' so coaches can evaluate them.  The officials with the highest ratings through the year are selected for the post season/state tournament.  This is pretty common sense in my opinion.  

If you take pride in being an official I imagine you would also like to be selected to work the state tournament.  A rating process would create competition.  Competition incentives people to improve.  If you don't improve you don't get selected.  How is this difficult to understand? 

Perfection is not demanded from officials.  Competency is demanded from officials during the post season.  Because there is no evaluation officials are an untouchable class in the KY wrestling community and have zero incentive to improve outside of their own intrinsic motivation. If you have been officiating for 10, 20, 30 years there probably isn't a whole lot of motivation to improve your skills.  This is how we get incompetent officials at the state tournament. eh hem, stalling, stalling, stalling, stalling, stalling, dq! 

Your reasoning is flawed regarding coaches evaluating officials.  Lets say an official works 6 tournaments and 6 duals through the season(I know most are doing much more especially if you include middle school/youth).  Lets say there is an average of 10 teams across those tournaments and only 2 teams per dual meet. That's 72 evaluations during the season.  If we don't incentivize/penalize coaches for doing/not doing the evaluations maybe we get 75% submitted.  So on the low end we would have 54 evaluations to build an aggregate. Doing this would create a pretty clear picture of an officials competency. There will be outliers for sure. Especially if a coach is pissed off about a match, but 30 pissed off coaches doing evaluations is not an anomaly, it is a pattern. 

If I am an official who is not selected for post season and/or is not happy with my ranking I am probably going to do some self reflection and put more effort into improving my skills, mechanics, understanding of the rules, wrestling positions, etc. 

I am not even sure the KHSAA would need to be involved. I think it is possible for the official's association to do this on their own.  Create a google form specific to each official.  All submissions for that official will be aggregated and the data/comments used to rank them.  It could be more intricate than this, but I just thought of the most low effort/cost effective way to do it.  

Coaches talk about officials.  We have some good ones for sure and there are some young officials I think have real promise, but there are a few that are SOOOOOOO bad they diminish our sport's credibility and that is a problem we need to address. 

I don't disagree that ref's should be evaluated. I just don't think coaches should be doing it. I hear you when you say competency is demanded rather than perfection. And in theory that's the way it should be. In real life though, if a ref isn't perfect (or what someone defines as perfect), they get blasted. And putting refs under a microscope, and being reviewed by the same coaches that they make rulings against, and possibly punish for bad behavior, after every single event, is not going to attract or keep people officiating. Just because someone is a coach, does not mean they are qualified to evaluate an official.

All the accountability in the world doesn't mean a thing if there aren't enough officials out there to keep the ones who aren't so good from needing to work so much. That's where the solution needs to start. And believe me, as a guy who coaches 3 different sports at the high school level, this is not just a wrestling issue. 

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One thing I have made an effort to do recently (the last couple years) and did a LOT this year is point out the positives when I saw an official do really well both personally as well as to the assignors. It’s not kissing their butts. It’s being respectful and balancing out all of the negativity that they receive every single week with at least some positive feedback. It is also a welcome change for those making the post season decisions to hear who is doing well. And what I found is that a lot of the guys who I think did a great job this season get rewarded for their efforts. 
 

Respectful communication is the key. I know as coaches we feel like we need to yell and scream at the official to be heard. I’ve done it. Pretty sure I did it to Dennison in the 144 conso semi match this weekend. But we have to realize that doesn’t help anything. When we approach the ref with some level of sanity and ask questions instead of make accusations it generally benefits both parties. Back to Sedoris, he does a great job of communicating what he saw when making his call. Makes it much easier to accept the call I may not agree with and consider what I may not have seem. Case in point 144 3rd place match with Sedoris officiating. Late in the match my kid goes for a headlock and gets taken down as the wrestlers go off the mat. I know I saw the other kids right foot hit out. He calls 2. I question the call and point out that the kids foot was out and he can confirm with the assistant ref who was in position to see it. He calmly said yes it was out but red had one point in and green had one point in. Something I didn’t see or even consider. 

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8 minutes ago, GooglyMoogly said:

Hard to evaluate your buddies/peers effectively.  I am not saying assignors shouldn't be a part of the process, but they shouldn't be the only form of evaluating officials either.  I was talking to my high school coach yesterday and he was pretty blown away that we don't have a way to evaluate officials. We are way behind the state he coaches in, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing everything we can to elevate the level of wrestling here.  

Agreed. But it's also hard to objectively evaluate someone you're mad at for making a call that you think is wrong, especially in the heat of the moment. And the reality is, that call may have actually been right. Plus evaluating someone's performance is a skill, and not something everyone can be effective at doing. How do you insure there are standards in place, and that they are followed? These aren't insurmountable issues, but if coaches suddenly hold so much weight in a ref's evaluation, it could start influencing the way they call matches. You're certainly going to call matches differently if you know your ability to work future events is based on a coaches opinion of you. 

Doing evaluations is hard. Companies spend lots of money, training and time to make sure they are done correctly at the corporate level.  And to do them well, also takes time and effort. I'm not sure that adding this to a coaches already full plate is the most effective way to solve the problem. 

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36 minutes ago, Ranger123 said:

One thing I have made an effort to do recently (the last couple years) and did a LOT this year is point out the positives when I saw an official do really well both personally as well as to the assignors. It’s not kissing their butts. It’s being respectful and balancing out all of the negativity that they receive every single week with at least some positive feedback. It is also a welcome change for those making the post season decisions to hear who is doing well. And what I found is that a lot of the guys who I think did a great job this season get rewarded for their efforts. 
 

Respectful communication is the key. I know as coaches we feel like we need to yell and scream at the official to be heard. I’ve done it. Pretty sure I did it to Dennison in the 144 conso semi match this weekend. But we have to realize that doesn’t help anything. When we approach the ref with some level of sanity and ask questions instead of make accusations it generally benefits both parties.

Ranger you have hit the nail on the head.  As MaMa always said you catch more bees with honey.  

I have seen a change in the coaching style these last 5-10 years.  Many of the coaches ride the official all match long, much like many basketball coaches do (I've heard it called "working the officail").   

Wrestling is one of the last sports that takes sportsmanship to a higher level, and rightfully so.  This is an in your face sport, one on one, trying to rip the others head off battle.  That is why we need the sportsmanship aspect.  In the >>>>> many years I have been here I have always talked to officials after the match is completed.  That way you know the call will not be changed and the official knows you are not trying to change it.  A much more civilized conversation occurs at this time. 

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1 hour ago, rjs4470 said:

Agreed. But it's also hard to objectively evaluate someone you're mad at for making a call that you think is wrong, especially in the heat of the moment. And the reality is, that call may have actually been right. Plus evaluating someone's performance is a skill, and not something everyone can be effective at doing. How do you insure there are standards in place, and that they are followed? These aren't insurmountable issues, but if coaches suddenly hold so much weight in a ref's evaluation, it could start influencing the way they call matches. You're certainly going to call matches differently if you know your ability to work future events is based on a coaches opinion of you. 

Doing evaluations is hard. Companies spend lots of money, training and time to make sure they are done correctly at the corporate level.  And to do them well, also takes time and effort. I'm not sure that adding this to a coaches already full plate is the most effective way to solve the problem. 

If evaluations/rankings/rating scales work in other states, why can't they work in Kentucky?  The officials association is not a corporate entity like you mention. A google form with objective questions with scales is not a hard thing to keep track of, nor does it cost a tremendous amount of money. It doesn't take as much time as you think it would to complete, either (5 minutes, tops). I mean, if Ranger can rank the top 30 kids across 14 weight classes, evaluating 80-100 refs would be a piece of cake - especially if they had PIN's instead of names. Where there's a will, there's a way.  

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2 hours ago, GooglyMoogly said:

We need a way to evaluate officials after every competition.  Often when we compete in other states the officials are giving out their 'number' so coaches can evaluate them.  The officials with the highest ratings through the year are selected for the post season/state tournament.  This is pretty common sense in my opinion.  

If you take pride in being an official I imagine you would also like to be selected to work the state tournament.  A rating process would create competition.  Competition incentives people to improve.  If you don't improve you don't get selected.  How is this difficult to understand? 

Perfection is not demanded from officials.  Competency is demanded from officials during the post season.  Because there is no evaluation officials are an untouchable class in the KY wrestling community and have zero incentive to improve outside of their own intrinsic motivation. If you have been officiating for 10, 20, 30 years there probably isn't a whole lot of motivation to improve your skills.  This is how we get incompetent officials at the state tournament. eh hem, stalling, stalling, stalling, stalling, stalling, dq! 

Your reasoning is flawed regarding coaches evaluating officials.  Lets say an official works 6 tournaments and 6 duals through the season(I know most are doing much more especially if you include middle school/youth).  Lets say there is an average of 10 teams across those tournaments and only 2 teams per dual meet. That's 72 evaluations during the season.  If we don't incentivize/penalize coaches for doing/not doing the evaluations maybe we get 75% submitted.  So on the low end we would have 54 evaluations to build an aggregate. Doing this would create a pretty clear picture of an officials competency. There will be outliers for sure. Especially if a coach is pissed off about a match, but 30 pissed off coaches doing evaluations is not an anomaly, it is a pattern. 

If I am an official who is not selected for post season and/or is not happy with my ranking I am probably going to do some self reflection and put more effort into improving my skills, mechanics, understanding of the rules, wrestling positions, etc. 

I am not even sure the KHSAA would need to be involved. I think it is possible for the official's association to do this on their own.  Create a google form specific to each official.  All submissions for that official will be aggregated and the data/comments used to rank them.  It could be more intricate than this, but I just thought of the most low effort/cost effective way to do it.  

Coaches talk about officials.  We have some good ones for sure and there are some young officials I think have real promise, but there are a few that are SOOOOOOO bad they diminish our sport's credibility and that is a problem we need to address. 

Great post. "Perfection is not demanded from officials.  Competency is demanded from officials during the post season." Sums it up pretty well. 

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2 hours ago, GooglyMoogly said:

Hard to evaluate your buddies/peers effectively.  I am not saying assignors shouldn't be a part of the process, but they shouldn't be the only form of evaluating officials either.  I was talking to my high school coach yesterday and he was pretty blown away that we don't have a way to evaluate officials. We are way behind the state he coaches in, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing everything we can to elevate the level of wrestling here.  

They use to give us an evaluation form in our packets every year.  Coaches had to print and sign their names to the form. Why not bring that back?

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Assuming that officials take a test yearly to verify they know the rules, do coaches take the same test for rules?

How are post season officials selected in the current moment?  If it’s the officials association, the coaches association should aim to them for an evaluation and selection process.  If it’s the KHSAA then aim towards them.  Ps - If it’s the KHSAA that assigns and selects then you mine as well save your breath!!!

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