From the bleachers

I was fortunate to spend the weekend watching high school wrestling. Many things came to my attention and most of them don't get discussed on the Internet forums. So, I thought I would bring up a few here. These are purely cosmetic, however, I wasn't able to look beyond them. Feel free to discuss them on the comments below or anywhere else you might see fit.

About 10-15 years ago, a few teams rolled out "finals singlets." They were awesome. Usually white or gold, these special garments were saved for the individuals who reached the championship finals of prominent tournaments, like the state tournament. They were special and gave extra incentive to do well. Now, everyone gets to wear one. Most of the coaches have renamed them "championship singlets." It doesn't sit right at all to see two individuals square off for 11th place in championship singlets. Friends, no matter how you dice it, the 11th place bout is not the championship match. Maybe the kid fought hard and over-achieved to get there. Maybe he overcame an insurmountable amount of adversity, I'm not minimizing those efforts or heroics. Often times, the best stories happen there, but let's not pretend the consolation side, or even 3rd place for that matter, are championship finals matches. They're not.

Tattoos and cauliflower ear are pretty much the norm at high school wrestling tournaments. It was once unheard of for a high school kid to sport a tattoo. Currently, it's a wild fad. Cauliflower ears were reserved for only a few exceptional high school wrestlers and predominantly collegiate and international competitors, now below average wrestlers have them. I'm not against tattoos or cauliflower ears. I have one of each. That being said, I'm not overly impressed with the kid who spent $450 on a bad-ass tribal tattoo that covers his entire shoulder and half of his upper arm when he loses first round of a high school wrestling tournament. Worst yet, when he goes 0-2. The kid definitely isn't as tough as he thought he was when he got inked. Once I believed the dude with the barbed wire tattoo around his biceps was tough. Not any more. To be "tough" that better be real barbed wire wrapped tightly around your arm.

Every wrestling coach on the planet understands that at high school events, only two coaches are permitted to be in the corner of each wrestler. It's so obvious, in fact, that the tournament directors often have TWO chairs in opposite corners, color coordinated to make it easy on coaches and they make announcements regularly throughout the day. They don't have to think where to go or how many coaches are allowed. Just look at the chairs and sit down. Well, if you've ever been to a wrestling tournament, you would see that coaches just can't get this one right. Two in a corner in this part of the state means 2 + at least 1. If you have a stat girl, she gets a spot on the floor. Video? Yep, right next to the coach. Over-zealous parent with a camera? Sure, give the coach 4-5 feet and put them on the floor, too. Of course, the recent graduate who is unemployed and lives at home because he's no longer in college should stand with his shirt untucked directly behind the assistant coach. Oh yeah, the cute 5th grade aspiring wrestler should sit in the corner, too. There are no less than 5-6 people in the corner for most matches. You're an anomaly if you follow this clear and concise rule. I wonder why athletes feel so entitled today. You don't suppose it's because coaches might be leading by example, do you?

Some of the things that people say from the stands are quite amusing. I'm not going to throw them under the bus, though, because they're fans. They don't have to know what they're saying. They're just passionate, which is awesome. It's not awesome, however, when the coach doesn't know what he's talking about. There seems to be a few general cliche statements that have little to no meaning, but for some reason, most coaches use them. "How bad do you want it?" Is that question supposed to be answered or is it rhetorical? It serves no purpose with 30 seconds left to wrestle. "Hips! Hips! Hips!" "Belly! Belly! Belly!" "Go!" "Come On!" Or to the official: "Stalling" "Really?!?!" "Stalling" "Ah, Come On!" "Stalling!" "He's backing up!" "He's stalling!!!!" These words account for nearly 50% of the vocabulary used by wrestling coaches. None of it has an impact that leads to anything positive. It becomes noise to competitors and officials. It's unfortunate because when the coach does have something beneficial or useful to say, their voice is already categorized as noise and is blocked out so it goes unnoticed.

There are several other things that caught my attention, but I'll reserve them for another day.