I didn't want to change the topic on the Raccoon, so I will start a little different conversation. Every year, the last two weeks of the season I really stress to the kids don't let yourself do something stupid and get kicked out of the tournament. We all know the season would be over for the kid. A few years ago, I had a wrestler swear when he was on the mat and he was ejected from the tournament and the next tournament. It was mid-season so it turned out to be a learning experience for the whole team.

I went to a basketball game that following week and a kid swore on the court. The officials called a technical, the other team shot baskets and the game continued on. I attended my nieces basketball game this past weekend and I heard a girl from the other team swear. I was up 3 rows, I find it hard to believe that the refs didn't hear her. Nothing was done.

The coaches from both teams were on the ref the entire game and one went as far as saying to the ref "I know you are not that bad make the call".

I bet there are some basketball or football players in the state that have ringworm or some other skin infection. Why are they not checked before the games?

The rules we have are not bad, but why are the other sports not held to the same standards. My wrestler should have been removed from the tournament, but so should have the basketball players. My wife was the one that brought up the fact that I could not badger the officials like they did in the basketball game. I should not be able to, but why should that be tolerated in other sports.

The skin infection really gets me. I had a wrestler removed from the second day of the state tournament a few years ago because he had a crack in the corner of his mouth. It was when we had the scare in Minnesota about herpes.

I just think all athletes should be treated more consistently. I think wrestlers get the short end of things. Wouldn't it be great to hear the basketball coach have to deal with a basketball player because he couldn't pass hydration, skin checks or DQed from districts.

I am getting a little edgy before districts.

To be fair the rules are the same for people who get kicked out of any sport. I don't think swearing is enough to kick a wrestler out of a tourny unless it is directed at a wrestler, coach, or official.

NR...I've undergone an amazing mindset change in the past several years, and one of the things that I've learned is that any energy spent on things outside your control area is wasted energy.

I agree with you...athletes should be treated and disciplined consistently across the board. The discipline and health issues are not limited to one sport, and it's frustrating that athletes in other sports do not appear to be subjected to the same "quality control" standards that are in place in our sport.

What we should focus on, though, is making sure we are consistent in how these issues are handled in our sport and work to continue to make it better and minimize the likelihood of these issues rearing their ugly heads in our respective wrestling rooms.

When I was doing NWI, I wasted a lot of energy pointing out how awful the major media in this state was at covering our sport (in fact, it was the inspiration to start up the E-mag/website in the first place). Rather than doing that, I should have spent more time focusing on doing what I could to provide more coverage of the sport and serving the wrestling community even better than we already were doing at the time.

Like I said...I'm on board with you on the idea that ALL athletes should be held to the same standards with the issues you raised. All we can do as members of the wrestling community, though, is to continue to work to make our sport better and not waste our energy worrying about the other guy (or sport, as the case may be).

I just put some point on the board after Eagle 1 said some thing on the Raccoon thread that got me thinking. Like I said I don't have a problem with our rules. I do find it disturbing that other sports in the same state don't have to follow the same guidelines. When we are trying to get the state dual tournament passed, we will be compared to other sports and told they don't have an individual and team championship. If we are compared in other capacities, why not in the ones I brought up.

NR,
I share your frustration. The skin thing is really frustrating. Our basketball players come in the locker room, don't shower, throw their clothes (which haven't been washed all season) on the bench, put on their street clothes and leave. We had a basketball player with ringworm once and I reported it to admin. because I didn't want him rubbing up against one or our guys in the locker room or the bench for that matter. Nothing was done. Next day he had it taped and coninued as normal. One of our guys gets a pimple and we hold them out, and send them to a doctor at a great price to the parents just to make sure it's nothing so he can come back to practice. A basketball player had a horrible case of shingles here a couple years ago. He came in the locker room and took his shirt off and it looked like he had honey oozing out of his back. Of course sits on the bench and puts his shirt there to. The next night he played in the game and you could see the 1'X1' gauze patch they tape to the back of his shoulder. I suppose when he boxed out he didn't make any contact with anyone? That's what frustrates me. We get a bad rap when anyone has a skin condition because it's obvious when someone is sitting out of practice everyone finds out why. Heck, I'd bet money the wrestling room in our school is cleaner than any table or chair here because it's disinfected daily. I'd like to know why they aren't held to the same standard. I coach football too and the worst cases of full body ringworm I've ever seen are during football. However, they get to play unrestricted. We hold them out of practice until they go to the doctor but that's because we're both wrestling coaches so we keep an eye on that stuff. Guarantee there's many that just keep playing. Scary thing is, like you said, you have a kid that clears first day of districts or state but could fail skin checks the 2nd. No matter how diligent you are, there's nothing you can do to stop that. This week I've sent my entire team to a doc to have every spot on their skin documented. Every one is cleared but I do it so if a pimple is questioned, we have a sheet saying it's nothing. I feel horrible asking my parents to do it but I've seen the heart ache of a kid, a senior, that didn't get to wrestle because of something that popped up over night. Not from our team, but one very close to here and he was probably a state medalist. I've also seen kids that passed skin checks at state, won their first two matches, then failed the next day skin check. Already guaranteed a medal but then dq'd and didn't get his medal. That is a tragedy. I like you think our rules are good, but it's frustrating to have to go through everything we go through with skin, hydration, etc. and then try to coach and maintain a team on top of it. We've often joke about how we should have been basketball coaches so all we'd have to worry about was coaching! Rant over...

Eagle, very good point. I agree with you. One question...As I understand it at districts there is to be an onsite doctor for weigh-ins and that skin check forms are over ruled? So to have my guys all go to a doctor and get skin check forms will not matter, correct?

It is POSSIBLE it won't matter but what I have seen, at least so far, is not many doctors are willing to over rule another doctor. I have seen it happen at state though. I do it for peace of mind that if a doc looks at something on my kid that looks odd to him, if need be, I can produce a form with that very spot marked on a sheet as nothing contagious as verified by another doc. last year we had a kid with a non threatening condition that didn't look very good. We were sure it was something so we sent him to a dermatologist. Came back as nothing dangerous, however we sent him in 3 more times that week because it wasn't clearing. At districts, the doc of course questioned him so we gave him the latest skin sheet and he said "I don't know" so I pulled out the other 3 and he then said "well, I'm no dermatologist and if they checked him that many times, it can't be wrong." So I then handed him a blank form and got a free diagnosis as nothing dangerous so at state we had 5 forms from 3 different docs! Overboard? maybe. Effective? yes- I'm not sure he'd have wrestled without the extra sheets.