Buck,
It has been my policy to not respond to you since I do not know who you are and you do not sign your name. But, you addressed me. I will speak to the stalling calls first. We have a system to follow and I think I was much more consistent this year in neutral stalling. First and foremost, we count shots. If you take them and the other guy doesn't, he is stalling. Pushing is not a shot, if neither guy shoots, let the clock run. If a wrestler backs to the edge (not off, but to the edge) twice, I call him for stalling. If he backs out twice, stalling. These are things I look for in order to stay consistent. Keep in mind, stalling is a judgement call. In college, we have the out of bounds rule which I like very much. Push out is stalling (pretty rare), back out is stalling (most common), and action call (no stalling). I wish we would go to this rule in HS.
On your point of being annoyed with some coaches, you are correct. There were times this year I was "short" with several coaches and that is something I tried to improve for myself late in the season. However, the rules are clear, you cannot ask questions from the corner and if you are not in the corner, you are not the coach. You also don't get to come to the edge of the mat and protest a call. I can think of being "short" with Adam at WO one or two times, but he likes to play the game of asking about stuff when he is really questioning judgement (might you be a WO supporter?). I consider him a friend and later talked to him about my being "short". I had to send Koz back to his corner several times because he likes to get to the edge of the mat (on the out of bounds line) in front of the table and yell (might you be a Eside supporter?). If you have a question, go to the table and we can talk. In other words, follow the rules. Sorry Adam and Koz for bringing you guys up as examples.
I think, at times, I was annoyed with the level of wrestling in this state. I have been blessed to officiate NCAA/NAIA matches and national events in Virginia Beach. When you come back and do a dual mid-week in SC, quite frankly, the wrestling stinks. Heck, in comparison, most of the wrestling in SC stinks. This is something I need to work on if I am going to continue to officiate SC HS wrestling. I need to be engaged and interested because that is what the kids deserve. I am currently thinking that through for next year. If I can't be engaged every night, I won't do SC HS wrestling. Not fair to the kids who wrestle. More importantly, not fair to my wife and 2 daughters at home who would very much like to have me around more!
As for screwing up calls at state. I can't speak to the others, but I honestly don't think I missed a call all weekend. I was engaged and receptive to coaches. In fact, the only time a coach questioned me was the 126 final. That was the only time I spoke to a coach all weekend.
TBowe