KSHSAA Wrestling

Wrestling

WRESTLING INTERPRETATIONS ARCHIVE

SKIN CHECKS – FAILURE TO CONDUCT A THOROUGH AND COMPLETE SKIN CHECK WILL LEAD TO PROBLEMS
As I have mentioned at almost every rules meeting annually, one of the major problems in the sport of wrestling is controlling communicable skin diseases and keeping them out of the wrestling room and off the wrestling mat (i.e. off the wrestlers). To successfully accomplish that goal requires the joint effort of coaches, their wrestlers, school administrators and officials. Without the unified efforts of all parties, communicable skin diseases will continue to be a problem in the sport.

Much emphasis and effort has been put forth by coaches across the state over the years in an effort to protect their wrestlers from exposure to other wrestlers who may have a communicable skin condition. School administrators have expended considerable financial resources to purchase sprays/materials/soaps to control such diseases on the mats and in the locker rooms. Coaches had committed time and resources educating kids about communicable skin disease. Coaches need to continue their efforts by visually checking their kids for possible skin conditions on a daily basis.

OFFICIALS – you must support the efforts of the coaches and administrators by CONDUCTING A COMPLETE SKIN INSPECTION PRIOR TO ANY COMPETITION. If you fail to carry out your responsibilities and duties in this respect, you have compromised all the efforts of the coaches and school administrators. We recently had a very clear example of the ramifications when officials fail to carry out this part of their competition duties. Permit me to review the scenario:

Prior to competition during the skin inspection, one of the wrestlers had some tape on their forearm/elbow. When the official asked the wrestler about the tape, the response from the wrestler was that he had re-aggravated a previous injury and the tape was precautionary. AT THIS POINT THE OFFICIAL SHOULD HAVE INSTRUCTED THE WRESTLER TO REMOVE THE TAPE SO THAT THE OFFICIAL COULD VISUALLY SEE THE SKIN AREA UNDER THE ARM. That did not happen – the official accepted the answer and the wrestler passed the inspection. Following this wrestler’s match, the tape comes down and a large suspicious “blotch” (previously covered by the tape) became visible. Concern about a possible communicable disease arose when the blotch became visible. After looking at the area, the official had concerns that indeed the spot may be a communicable skin disease. At that point the official then correctly ruled that the wrestler could not continue on that evening and was not allowed to participate in any further matches – the problem was that this was a dual and there would be no more matches for the wrestler the rest of the evening and if the wrestler was indeed infected with a communicable skin disease, everyone participating in the match was now exposed. One of the first questions raised was then “Do the results of the just completed match stand?” The official correctly ruled that the results would stand – see NFHS casebook 4.2.3 Situation A. By NFHS interpretation of the rules, the results up to the point of the disqualification would stand. Now if the official had become aware of the possible communicable disease DURING the match and the official had disqualified the wrestler at that point, the match would have been awarded to the other wrestler.

BUT THE POINT I MUST STRESS AND OFFICIALS MUST REMEMBER IS THAT OFFICIALS NEED TO CONDUCT A FULL AND COMPLETE VISUAL INSPECTION OF THE WRESTLERS BEFORE ANY COMPETITION. Officials cannot conduct just a cursory inspection of the wrestlers or allow a wrestler to have skin covered or taped during the inspection. While one would like to believe in the integrity of the wrestlers we need to remember that they are still MS/JH or HS students. Sometimes they don’t exercise the best judgment or may try to get around the rule. When an official asks the wrestler to remove any wraps or tape covering the skin, that request is not questioning the athlete’s integrity – the official is fulfilling the requirements of the NFHS rules and is reinforcing the efforts of school coaches and administrators in protecting their wrestlers from a communicable skin condition. At this particular time of the year/season, any communicable skin disease can keep wrestlers out of two of the most important meets of the season – regional and state.

Rules question – Here’s an interesting situation – in a large tournament, in a “pig-tail” match, one of the wrestlers is disqualified for biting their opponent. Obviously, the wrestler is disqualified from the competition/tournament. But the question is can team points be deducted since the wrestler is technically not “on the bracket” yet. After consulting with the NFHS staff it is there interpretation that the deduction of team points for a disqualification of a wrestler in this situation is the appropriate call. They concurred that it is a truly unique situation and that it is not currently covered in any situation in the casebook. It may be that next year such a situation will appear in next year’s casebook. They can understand the logic used at the time this situation arose to DQ the wrestler but to not deduct team points. Again after review, they believe that deduction of team points for the DQ is appropriate.

Stalling situation – Officials and coaches should direct their attention to NFHS casebook situations 7.6, 7.6.1A, 7.6.1 B, 7.6.2, 7.6.4 and 7.6.6 for guidance re: calling of stalling in various situations. It is important to remember (as is pointed out in these situations) both wrestlers have the responsibility of wrestling aggressively. With the changes to NFHS rules 5-25-6c and 7-6-6c, referees now have rules support for a stalling call against a wrestler who repeatedly creates a stalemate situation to simply prevent his/her opponent from scoring and not from his/her own attempt to score. In the casebook situations identified with an asterisk “*” these are new situations put in the book to provide specifics and examples for any new rule. It is important for the officials to exercise consistent judgment in application of all NFHS rules but it is especially important for the officials to enforce the provisions relevant to stalling. Both wrestlers have the responsibility to wrestle aggressively. Focus this year by the NFHS wrestling rules committee was on the actions of the wrestler who repeatedly applies holds to create stalemate situations only to prevent their opponent from scoring. If the defensive wrestler’s efforts to escape or reverse the offensive wrestler is thwarted by the action of the offensive wrestler who repeatedly applies a hold in order to prevent the escape or reversal, then the defensive wrestler’s efforts are being penalized! It’s pretty clear in these examples that if a wrestler applies the same situation repeatedly, officials have support for calling stalling. Please review the casebook for guidance in applying the rules.

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6A 5A 4A 3-2-1A	Manhattan Arkansas City Andale Scott City	Hartman Arena, Wichita Hartman Arena, Wichita Salina Bicentennial Center Fort Hays State University Coliseum
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