Tillett, coaches put in work

The seeds of the biggest win in Wes Tillett's wrestling career were planted the week before, but it's interesting to note just how close those seeds came to not getting in the ground.

Shamokin coach Todd Hockenbroch wanted Tillett to go out hard against Benton's Tyler DeMott in the district championship 285-pound bout and not let DeMott dictate things, if for no other reason than to get a clearer picture of how to attack DeMott, last season's Class AA state runner-up and a seemingly invincible wrestler.

Tillett did just what Hockenbroch wanted, went after DeMott and immediately was thrown on his back. Only the fact that the throw was close to the out-of-bounds circle saved Tillett from being pinned in an embarrasingly quick time.

But then something telling happened.

Starting on the bottom in the referee's position, Tillett scored a reversal on DeMott in no time at all, and the Benton wrestler had a look on his face that almost seemed to scream, "That's not supposed to happen."

Right then and there, that aura of invincibility seemed to leave DeMott, and although he did eventually pin Tillett, the Shamokin junior and his coaches learned some things they could use in practice leading up to last weekend's regional tournament.

"He (Tillett) did everything we worked on this week," Hockenbroch said after Tillett's 9-5 overtime win over DeMott in the regional final. "Last week we wanted him to open up and wrestle him instead of being defensive, so we could get some footage of it and come up with a gameplan with what we wanted to do."

First and foremost, that gameplan meant staying away from DeMott's brute strength, and not getting locked up in underhooks and bear hugs with the Benton senior.

Secondly, it meant going after every wrestlers' weakest point, his legs. If you take a guy's legs out, gravity will do the rest, and Tillett did that quickly, getting a first-period takedown for a 2-0 lead, which set the tone for the bout.

DeMott scored an escape in the second period to cut the lead to 2-1.

Forgotten in the immediate moments after Tillett's win was that he had to overcome some adversity during the bout. He used two injury timeouts, the first when he twisted an ankle fighting off a lockup, and the second coming when DeMott finally did get his takedown early in the third period, knocking the wind out of Tillett with the landing.

Tillett got another takedown in the third period to go ahead, and probably should have had the bout won in regulation but was hit with a very controversioal stalling call with about 10 seconds left. Tillett was hit for hanging on to DeMott's leg, but DeMott was trying to get out of bounds as much as he was trying to escape.

DeMott got a bear hug on Tillett early in the overtime but this time Tillett countered, got his leg entwined with DeMott's and forced the Benton wrestler off balance to take him to his back.

The gorilla in the room

Officiating in any sport is not easy, and it takes a certain kind of person to do it. And because I like most of the officials out there, it's tough to criticize them. But people criticize coaches and sportswriters all the time and think nothing of it, so if there's a 500-pound gorilla in the room, somebody needs to say so.

Maybe it was just coincidence, maybe it was mass confusion, maybe it was spring fever because of the weather outside, but the officiating as a whole for the Northeast Regional was - well, let's just say it wasn't that particular group's finest moment. It was odd too, because officiating at the previous two tournaments had been pretty good for the most part.

There were a host of really questionable calls, one of which flat out denied one wrestler a trip to Hershey.

Milton 112-pounder Eric Wolfe lost his third-place bout to Benton's Colt Cotten 6-4, but only after the bout was tied when Wolfe was called for stalling while going for a takedown. Moments earlier, Wolfe's coach, Bob Greenly, had to beg the mat judge to overrule the official and award Wolfe a pretty obvious escape.

Another Benton wrestler, 103-pounder Matt Welliver, took advantage of a questionable stall call against Midd-West's Zach Heeter in their third-place bout which tied the score, and Welliver then won with a takedown.

DeMott, as good as he is, was lucky to be in the final against Tillett. He was on his back twice in his semifinal against South Williamsport's Jeff Mach, and most observers on that side of the gym thought Mach had the pin at least once. South Williamsport was deducted a team point when one of their coaches loudly told the official, "You missed two pins out there."

In another third-place bout, Wellsboro's Josh Mihalik dropped a 3-1 overtime decision to Montoursville's Nick Dawson at 215 when he wasn't awarded two points for a takedown near the edge of the mat. I was pretty far away from that one to judge, but from the way the Wellsboro coach and the fans at that end reacted, it was questionable.

On Friday night, Central Columbia's Ben Emmett was pinned with only one shoulder on the mat and a Central Columbia assistant coach had to be calmed down by a tournament official. In the mat official's defense, at least one member of the press said Emmett had been pinned, but the call was late and by the time it was made, his other shoulder was off the mat.

Again, officials are only human and I doubt any of them are out to get anyone. But if there is one general complaint to make about them, it's that they are not very willing to ask for help from their mat judge. The mat judge is there to help them, not make them look bad by changing calls.

Perhaps they're spending too much time watching major league umpires.