Lakota West Duals

One of my favorite events to ref is the Lakota West Varsity Duals. Why you may ask? Good wrestling, good atmosphere, treated well, and good hospitality room. The parents do an awesome job with the food.

We had five officials for four mats and the way the rotation worked out, I was sitting out for the first round of the duals. So I hit the hospitality room had a little breakfast and then watched some intense wrestling in the first round.

Fan day
Before it was my time to go out on the mat I had some conversations with some of the moms. One of the moms shared with me that her son was doing good at college with his wrestling career and what he wanted to do after graduating.

Another mom shared with me what it was like for her son for the previous wrestling season. He is a really good kid and came over and joined our conversation.

Believe it or not but we don't think fans are all bad. Some are just passionate and I can appreciate that as long as they don't cross the line.

Speaking of passionate, it was my turn to join in on the fun and officiate one of the duals in the second round. Before stepping onto the mat I warn some of the fans that stalling will be called so don't boo. We share some laughs and it's time for me to get on the mat.

In this round I officiated Lakota West vs. Lebanon. You gotta love it when the kids come out and just go at it. In fact they wrestled so hard that I hardly had any stall calls for the entire dual.

You gotta love those passionate fans. I usually don't pay attention to them but I heard them a couple of times. They later told me they were my cheering section. Lol! Good times!

In the end, West was just to much for Lebanon.

The third round I had Lebanon vs Anderson. They were pretty evenly matched. Unfortunately I had to do something I hate having to do and that was deduct a team point. I ended up talking with the kids dad about it and he'll be fine. Class coaches all day long. Makes my job a lot easier.


The fourth and final round I had Lebanon vs Princeton. Of course the Lebanon coach tells me he's tired of seeing me. He's joking, I hope. Princeton came out on top and it was for seventh place. In this round my mat got done early so I watched the first place match between Mason and Lakota West.

Kind of nice to just sit back and watch. But of course the lovable fans were all of over my peer who happens to be a State Official. So we shared some kind words and disagreed on a call or two. It's all in fun. They are just passionate about there team.

The tournament ran so smooth and efficient that I couldn't believe it got done so fast. I'll see some of these teams again in a few weeks at GMCs. Oh, I'm sure I'll see the fans too.