The controversial call on Easton's Kurtis Crossman's disposal of his headgear will be argued for a long time. We think the "nays" have it.
www.lehighvalleylive.com
It's an interesting article. And I give Brad Wilson kudos for expressing his thoughts. But I don't think he's all that qualified to evaluate the interpretation of, and application of, the wrestling rules.
He starts off with: It’s a shame that Wednesday’s thrilling Easton-Nazareth wrestling match will forever be remembered as “the headgear throw match.”
That's a nice sentiment, but pretty much every sporting contest, no matter how good it is, where this a controversial play, controversial call, or controversial non-call at the end are remembered for that, and not for the quality of the competition. It's the nature of sports, and the nature of fans.
To his 5 points:
1. If the rule was incorrectly applied then Easton should be awarded the win if such a result is possible under the rules. The result could have enormous implications for postseason seeding for the district team tournament. If it is determined that Getz erred, but the result cannot be overturned, then the district seeding committee needs to take that into consideration.
- speaking as a ref, the rule was not incorrectly applied. I've made the same call many times. A team can always appeal the outcome of a match, based upon what they believe to be an incorrect application of the rule, to the District level in PIAA sports. And in 99.9999999% of the times, the decision of the official stands. Easton can appeal, but I'm pretty confident that will go nowhere (with the caveat that I've never dealt with District 11, but from what I've been told by state officials, as well as those involved at the District level in other Districts, it runs pretty much the same way across the Commonwealth).
2. one more team point for Easton, say, if Crossman had pinned – but it wasn’t just Crossman; Karam noted the Rovers left a lot of points on the mat – and the deduction was irrelevant. Moral: Technical falls aren’t as good as the real thing.
- that's always the case in wrestling, and in sports.
3. not every call needs to be made. There are good no-calls. Perhaps this situation was a chance for one.
- not all calls are made by refs, depending on the circumstances. For example, if the same incident took place in a middle school match, where one team was getting blown out, you might use it as a teaching moment, and instead of hitting the kid with unsportsmanlike, and costing his team a point, you just have a polite lecture with him, (and also his coach), to explain how that is a violation of the rules, and would cost the wrestler's team a point in high school. (And the flip side of this is some coaches, and some refs, feel the wrestler would learn best if you did call unsportsmanlike on the kid, so even when using discretion you don't satisfy everybody.). By JV matches, no matter the score, a ref is making the call. In varsity, you're absolutely making that call
4. in very close matches, perhaps coaches should offer extra reminders to their team to avoid any violation that could even remotely be close to unsportsmanlike conduct and a deduction. Phillipsburg did that in last year’s criteria win over Easton. If Crossman keeps his headgear on, or carries it back to the bench, then he never gives Getz a chance to misinterpret an innocent gesture.
-- LOL, refs don't interpret gestures. They have no way of knowing what is in the wrestler's mind. They enforce the rules that are in the book -- whether the fans/coaches/wrestlers like the rule or not. To his broader point, yes, well coached teams do constantly remind their wrestlers of appropriate and inappropriate behavior, to avoid incidents like this. As an aside, it's been my observation over years of reffing that it is more often the winning wrestler that will throw their headgear for whatever reason. If you watch the video, you'll note that the wrestler from Nazareth, who had just gotten TFed and as such thought he had lost the dual for his team, and thus you might think he would be pissed off, is holding his headgear in his hands. Bo Nickal (who knows the rules forward and backward) cost PSU a team point at NCAAs (I think it was after he pinned Myles Martin; not certain), when he threw his headgear after the conclusion of the match.
5. no referee should ever referee a match involving his alma mater, or a school that (otherwise) employs him. This is not a hard rule to follow. District 11 wrestling assignor Larry Deiter should immediately begin implementing it.
- well, I think I understand the sentiment, but I doubt it was any bit of an issue during the match. I've reffed matches involving my high school. I've reffed matches involving the district in which my wife worked. I've reffed matches involving the school where my kids went to high school. I've reffed matches involving the school my wife went to high school. Etc. Two key points here: 1) the 1st time you ref a team you have some connection to it might be mildly interesting, but after the contest starts, you're rarely even aware of who the teams/schools are. You're just doing what you've been trained to do, and 2) there are not enough refs, and even fewer good refs, so assignors don't have the luxury of excluding refs from certain schools. Most assignors that I know will not assign a ref to a school in a district where they are employed. Beyond that, there are rarely limitations. With the PIAA, when you get to the postseason, it is left to the ref to decide if there are any schools they should not be assigned to due to work, graduated from, etc. That's the case until the State Championships. At that level, for most sports (not all), a ref can not work a contest that involves a team from the district in which they live/are registered to, unless both contestants are from that district. (And the PIAA does this to avoid complaints about the bias of refs, even though they admit that nobody that is reffing championships has shown any evidence of bias.)
I give Wilson credit for looking at the case book. Most people (fans, coaches, wrestlers, and journalists) don't even know the rules, let alone the guidance that is offered in the case book. That said, he doesn't have the experience of reffing, or the training, to understand the guidance that is being offered.
I've had wrestlers slam their head gear to the mat after winning a match, and other wrestlers slam their headgear to the mat after losing a match. In every instance in high school wrestling, I hit them with unsportsmanlike. I've never understood the immediate need to remove headgear at the end of a match, but many wrestlers (certainly not all) do it.
What can a wrestler do with their headgear after a match that wouldn't be called unsportsmanlike?
- drop it to the mat
- hold it in their hand
- if the match ends with them on the edge, by their team, and they flip their headgear underhanded to their coach or teammate, that's fine (do the same thing from the other side of the mat, and you'll get called for unsportsmanlike)
- flip it out of your hand, but have it only land within a foot or so of you
In essence, if you throw your headgear, you're going to be called for unsportsmanlike. Wilson (the journalist) had this to say about the winning Easton wrestler: "This reporter was sitting 15 feet away and saw nothing with the fast, high-speed action that indicates anger or an improper attitude. There was certainly nothing said." Unfortunately, that's not the criteria a ref uses for making the call. It's the action, and not what is behind it, that is called.
