From Coach Bartram

Yesterday Andrew Wanovich pinned his way to the finals of the 7^th / 8^th Grade 83 pound Open State Championship finals in Winston Salem, North Carolina. The finals match started as all the others did for Andrew that day, a takedown by him followed by relentless pressure. Not yet out of bounds, Andrew responded to his coach’s direction to keep the opponent in bounds and returned his opponent in a legal manner to the mat in bounds. The opponent, though posting his forearm to the mat, could not adequately protect himself from the force of the return and his jaw bounced off the mat very hard. He cried out and the match was stopped for injury time. During the action the official had blown his whistle. In the official’s judgment, Andrew had continued through the whistle and was charged with unnecessary roughness. The injured wrestler was not able to continue after injury time expired and subsequently, because unnecessary roughness is an illegal action and not a technical violation, Andrew was disqualified.

I do not want to focus on the call made by the official or even the natural feeling of dejection that overcame the Andrew, his teammates, coach and Mother who were all mat side.

The fact of the matter is that while I may have disagreed with the judgment of the official; an official’s judgment is inarguable. It must be. To argue an official’s judgment is to fail to honor the game. In order to honor the game we must respect officials, ourselves, our opponents and our teammates.

I want to focus on the individual that honored the game during and after the match. Andrew Wanovich did not complain about the decision, did not complain about the result, did not fall into the trap of following the example set by some of the adults present, he merely did the right thing and honored the official, his self, his opponent, and his teammates.

Andrew’s behavior is reflective of the character we try to instill in the Herd. The Herd was on the mat Saturday, Sunday, and Monday this past weekend and for the first time in a very long time there was behavior on the mat over the weekend that I was not proud of. My disappointment was erased (but not forgotten) by Andrew’s behavior Monday afternoon.

So Andrew, thank you for honoring the game and thank you for being a Rhino and leading the herd.

As Andrew and I stood in the t-shirt line in an near empty gym waiting for his tournament shirt, I pointed out to him a graphic of a wrestler with his back turned to the viewer. Below the picture was written, “Champions have no reason to look back.”

Don’t look back, Andrew, you were a champion before you ever stepped on the mat Monday. See you at practice tonight.

~Coach B