| I would like to give a little insight on wrestling in The Silver State from a Referee or Official’s perspective. I would be remiss not to mention that Wrestling is not only the World’s oldest sport, but also I like to say it is the ONLY Sport. Nobody plays Wrestling; everything else is simply a game. It is hard to dismiss Covid-19, it is real, but I have read that less than 2% of children under the age of 18, and the death rate at that age, is about 0.01%. One death is too many, but wrestling is the one sport that actually cleans their sport area/mat more than all others. |
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| Over the past few weeks, I have been to two other states to officiate a College Conference Championship and a College National Championship. A couple weekends ago, I watched both The Big 10 and Big 12 Conference Championships. Wrestling is happening all over, why not Nevada? While at my past two tournaments, I worked with officials from all over the country, each of their states ARE wrestling, albeit, some a little later than usual. I have officiated over 40 National Championships at various age-group levels. I have officiated from Washington to Florida, California to Pennsylvania, from North Dakota to Texas, and a bunch of places in-between. Every tournament and every dual meet follows normal cleaning protocol. |
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| During the past year with this pandemic, those protocol procedures have included cleaning protocols at a much stronger level. Wrestling takes Covid-19 seriously; we have ramped up our already conscientious mat cleaning and skin examinations by following meticulous protocols. The diligence concerning holding events is serious in making certain to do our best, without causing any super-spreading wrestling situations. |
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| We (coaches, athletes, officials, etc.) did take the Rapid Covid Test prior to the Women’s NCAA schools, and NAIA this past weekend, but that isn’t necessarily happening everywhere. Some events, not all, had one-way flow of traffic. Athletes and Coaches were allowed to enter from one area and only exit from another. Early events I did, allowed only one coach in the corner rather than the standard two. This has recently loosened up in some regards. |
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| As I mentioned earlier, wrestling is the World’s oldest, and I believe greatest sport. It provides athletes of all ages, sizes, and gender, an opportunity to compete against other individuals and teach them valuable life lessons. In many cases, sport, and especially wrestling, might be the one positive in a young person’s life. It is, in my humble opinion, time to provide these opportunities to young student athletes in Nevada again. |
| Respectfully, Rob Roy Wrestling Official |
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