2coach
I am sorry this incident happened to your son at our tournament. There should not be any excuse for an adult to push around a young child. But I am a little concerned about the severity of the situation. I think we all have to remember there are always two sides to a story and a situation can be persieved two entirely different ways, depending on who is giving their side. I am also curious as to why this wasn't reported to the head table or tournament director at the time it happened.I was available at the head table most of the day and at any time I had to step away someone else was there to cover for me. If you are coaching matside I would hope you are an experienced coach who would know this is not an acceptable action by anyone, be it a ref or coach. But instead of reporting it you chose to discuss it on an open forum with people who were not there to witness the event.
The head referee who was at the Derby tournament is a very well respected ref and has many many years of experience working with young kids. This is just not in his charactor to abuse a young child. So, I have to ask a few questions:
1. Had he repeatedly asked your son to move from the mat so he would not get hurt? And did your son refuse to move from matside?
2. Regardless of whether your wrestler was getting pinned is not the issue but was this happening on the side of the mat where you and your son were at, AND was the ref needing room to get down on the mat to see the pin, AND was your son preventing him from doing this?
3. Was your son technically "pushed" or was he "moved aside" by the ref. Believe it or not there is a difference.
4. When a person is already upset (your wrestler getting pinned) it is easier to find fault where there is'nt any. I tend to do this myself on occasion.

If , there were in actuality no underlaying reasons for this to of happened and you feel your son was actually pushed or shoved from the matside then I think a formal complaint should be filed to the state board. And please contact me, as tournament director, and I will get you any paperwork you need.

But, again if you are not wanting to get anyone in trouble (as stated earlier) then I am not sure what your reasons are for hashing this out on the forum and not taking this through the proper channels.

Cindy Shavlik
DWC President & Tournament Director
316-788-7986