(Photo above shows Philip Gerber of Bluffton High School Vs Brayden Moreau of Garrett High School from last Thursday's dual meet in Bluffton. Gerber won the bout 9-5. Garrett won the meet 55-9 on the back of five forfeits. Photo thanks to Bluffton News-Banner, for whom I covered the event.)
As I write this blog entry, I kind of have mixed feelings of excitement and, I guess, "bewilderment" or "wonder." I don't know if either is the right word.
The excitement defintiely comnes from the prospect of getting back into regular writing about my favorite sport - wrestling - after a break of several years. The "bewilderment" comes from trying to follow a live (dual meet) event.
In saying that, I mean no disrespect or "negativity" towards the host school, and I certainly hope that my comments won't be taken that way. I enjoyed the wrestling, and everyone I spoke with - officials, helpers and supporters - was friendly and tried to help. I like the dual meet concept; it's something that New Zealand clubs and officials never really seemed to get on top of, and yet, I feel it is - or could be - a huge way to promote our sport.
The "problem" for me came in actually following the action as it unfolded. Given that I was covering the event as a reporter, this was especially critical for me, although I suspect that anyone who came along as an ordinary member of the public would also appreciate "a better flow of information" as the action unfolds.
It's not a problem unique to Bluffton, Indiana. Some schools do it well, some don't. I found the same thing in Ohio, where although I worked as a sports reporter, the fact that one of the more senior reporters was a wrestling fan and liked to keep wrestling events to himself meant that again, I only was able to attend the occassional event, and therefore couldn't build up any great familiarlarity with the athletes.
Wrestling people often complain that our sport runs a very poor second to basketball in the hearts and minds of sports media. But I think in terms of presentation, we can sometimes be our own worst enemy.
I turned up at the event with my team rosters, and some brief notes on who to watch out for. I was able to get a program at the door, which I always try to do, just in case there are some surprises. So far so good - the wrestlers listed in the program matched what I had come with.
The problem started when the event started. Basically, the list of the weights and matchups were quickly read (once) prior to the start of the competition, and that was it as far as letting the audience know what was happening.
As it turned out, although we are at the end of the regular season, both teams fielded wrestlers not listed on their roster (or in the event program), which meant I had to trying to write their names in and not miss who was in the next bout(s). This was made more complex by the fact that most wrestlers on the visiting team were competing in weights other than the class they were listed in. Sometimes, the difference was a couple of weight classes, and given that Garrett brought a large team with them, it wasn't always easy to find their name on the roster. Figuring out whether it was a new name I had to write in, or one I just had to look harder to find became a split-second decision given the announcer had already moved on to the next bout.
With the bouts about to start, I really wasn't confident I had my list of matchups correct, and was hoping there would be further explanation as the meet progressed.
Unfortunately, there wasn't.
As a general assignment reporter, whose main beats are county government and courts, I don't often get to sports events in general. And wrestling meets even less. As a result, my ability to identify individual wrestlers by sight alone is very limited - and virtually non-existent in the case of a visiting team.
Also, the person in charge of the scoreboard seemed very slow in updating it. The weight of the bout being contested was seldom updated prior to the end of the first round, and given that a number of the weight classes had forfeits (Bluffton's team only has seven wrestlers this year) I found myself doing a lot of guess work.
Somehow, as far as writing notes for my newspaper story, I was able to overcome the challenges.
Unfortunately, I had also hoped to take video of some of the action for our paper's sports blog. (Extra publicity for the event, if you like.)
I quickly gave up hope of doing this - you really have to be able to announce something about what is going on at the start of a bout, even if you don't provide commentary throughout. Not knowing for sure which weight class was being contested made it impossible to figure out who was being featured in the action.
It would have sounded really lame if I'd began my video with "Well, this is another bout between a Bluffton wrestler and a Garrett wrestler, and I think it is a 130-pound weight class matchup. If I'm right, then we have Joe Smith representing Bluffton and well, I'm not sure who the Garrett guy is because I couldn't find the name that was announced earlier anywhere on their roster."
Get the picture? That was the situation I found myself in as most of the bouts began.
It would really have been helpful if, at the minimum, the weight class being contested was announced at the beginning of each bout. The names of the competing wrestlers would also be very helpful.
Basketball (and football - in the case of individual replacements - and volleyball) announcers are usually very quick to call when someone is going in or out during a game, and those players also have numbers on their kit to help for identification. Could this not also be done for wrestling?
As another possible suggestion, can I also ask that an update/explanation of the (team) points scoring situation might also be a good idea at the end of each bout, as the scoreboard is updated.
I'm sure that people in the audience unfamiliar with wrestling would like to know what the actual team score is as the meet progresses too, and how teams earn their points. At a basketball game, it's very easy to work out whether a player has just scored 1, 2 or 3 points, and what the overall situation is.
It's not so clear at a wrestling meet.
Atmosphere at a game, or indeed any event, is an important part of it's success. Good announcing can be a big part of this, and it doesn't have to be complicated.
Unfortunately, too often at wrestling meets, it seems to be something that is overlooked.
I remember back in New Zealand during the 1980s, interst in the America's Cup (yachting - is there a more boring sport to watch?) went through the roof, due in no small part to the microphone skills of a gentleman named Pete Montgomery. He could make two yachts becalmed on a lake with no suggestion of wind for another two hours sound like a dramatic struggle for life and death between two savaged and crazed wild animals.
That's kind of the spirit I like to be able to capture whenever I do a commentary of a wrestling match. I realize event announcers probably can't go quite that far, but if they can provide me the information prior to each bout, I'll certainly go for it when I do my video commentaries.
Let's get people enthusiastic about coming to watch our sport!
Whether they are sitting at home watching the action on their computer, or at the gym to cheer on their local school. Let's get the party rolling!
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