When I first got out of college 20 years ago, I wanted to find ways to stay involved with wrestling.
I couldn’t decide between officiating and coaching so I did the sensible thing – I did both. That lasted for two seasons when work and life made it clear that I had to give up one or the other.
Coaching won for a number of reasons. I thought many times about getting back into officiating, especially after I stopped coaching in 2001, but I always found a reason to stay away for one more year.
That all changed last fall. I took the officiating test and started working some local matches at the elementary and junior high levels.
Now that the season has passed, a few things pop into my brain. First off, I want to apologize to all the referees who had to put up with me when I coached. OK, maybe not all of them, but now I see what it’s like on the other side of the argument.
I joked with a friend the other week, however, that my experience on both sides had one thing in common. I was always right, or at least I thought I was.
All in all, I have to say that I had a good time officiating this season. When another friend saw me for the first time in my uniform at a recent all-star match, I had to laugh when she expressed shock and concern that I had that kind of power.
I kind of like it, but not in an arrogant way. I have spent pretty much my entire life around the sport. Some of my earliest memories are from my oldest brother – he was in college before I hit kindergarten – practicing moves he learned while wrestling at school on me.
Experiences like that put me on the path to competition. That led me to coaching. All along, I soaked up everything I could so that many, many things about wrestling come to me almost as second nature. That helped me settle in pretty well when I first put the whistle around my neck late last year.
I worried that first night if I would all of a sudden find myself frozen, searching for even the simplest of calls. The opposite happened. I felt right at home, even if I still don’t feel 100 percent comfortable in my referee’s uniform.
Sure, I had the moments that all officials have. I was told I didn’t know anything about the sport. I was blamed for the future failure of a tournament because of a call I made. I even had a little kid throw his ankle band at me.
In the end, I just laughed all of it off. I knew in every case that I had done the best I could to make the right call. I stayed clam and focused and kept everything in the right perspective.
Plus, I was doing something I loved. I just hope that some of the kids wrestling end up feeling the same way when they get to old to compete.