Official grabs throat to stop confrontation

Although I did not see what happened other than the tape, no matter, the Ref should be fired plain and simple.  No investigation, he's making a potentially life-threatening move against a student.  If the kid did something unsportsmanlike, kick him off the mat and if bad enough don't let him participate for the duration of the tourniments, but to grab anyone by the throat, speaks of abuse.

If I was the parent of this kid the first thing I would of done is called the local police and file assult charges on this ref. Then I would be talking to MHSAA.

 It is clear that this Ref is out of control and by no means should any Ref be putting there hands around a kids throat. I dont care what the kid did nothing requires a ref to put a choke hold on a kid. MHSAA should release him from his duties as a ref.  For the Ref go get some anger managment classes clearly you have a problem. I sure hope I never see this ref at one of my sons matches.

What is sad this year I have seen more then in my 4yrs of my child wrestling is these refs have lost site of what should be doing out there, many ego's are getting in the way for the good ref's who both ref a match and off mat help a kid with a move or make pointers.

Mr. Schifter should be immediately banned from ALL sports, not just wrestling.  He is also a ref at tournaments during the off season and should be banned from them as well.  I will be sending a link to this article, the video and the discussions on Mlive to the Coaches Associations, Officials Associations, and anyone else that may be able to have a voice in this matter.

Wrestling is a very intense sport and there is no room for a person like this. To grab anyone, especially a minor by the throat and push him all the way across the mat while verbally abusing him is inexcusable.  The only thing that could half justify the actions of this official would be self defense which is obviously not the case here.

Here is the sad part.  The wrestler was physically and verbally abused, by an authority figure, in the spotlight in front of his team, family and friends, disqualified, and not able to wrestle in the next tournament due to DQ.  The video and this article are on the internet for all to see.  Mr. Schifter was allowed to finish the tournament and go home.  He should have been hauled out of there in handcuffs and be in jail for assault.

A note to Mr. Schifter.  Do not bother signing up for another tournament, you are not welcome and WILL be asked to leave.  I'm sure I speak for more than just a few of us out there.

Mickey,

 Instead of showing only part of the video, why not show the whole thing.

 It'd be nice to see what happened leading up to this.

 Edit the video to show the match prior to the DQ.

I reacted as soon as possible when seeing what was going on and hit the record button from the point where the clip begins. There is no more to the video than what is shown. Tecumseh High School is requesting that anyone who has additional video contact them at 423.3651.

This ref should be arrested and if he is EVER allowed to ref or be around kids EVER again then shame on the school and athourities for not protecting our children!  This kids parents need to get an attorney and see to it this man pays for his behavior.  Whatever the kid in question did, it needed to be addresses, but never ever like this!  He is yelling at the kid  "you don't misbehave on my mat" AS HE'S CHOKING HIM!!!  WHAT?  This makes me so angry and I sincerely hope he does not get away with this.  He is a little, little man! 

If this were my kid, I wouldn't press any charges against the ref. He wasn't choking the kid. He was pushing the kid back by the neck (probably for being a punk tough guy), and it happened to be the most convenient place to put his hand. The kid was probably choked more in the previous stretch of wrestling than this. Everyone grow up.

Our nation is failing because 9/10 people would rather see this ref waterboarded than a terrorist. Forget about the ref. There was no choking. Please stop blowing everything out of proportion. 

This official has an ego that is second to none. As a former coach Shifter and I have had our moments. He is arrogant and consistently wrong on several of his calls. He rarely acknowledges coaches and his bias often shows through. Shifter has basically written his own rule book. This is nothing more than his ego getting the best of him. This is evident when he declared it "His mat".  I am no fan of this official and hope he gets it.

 It is my understanding that there was a push-shove out of bounds and that is what set Shifter off. I believe whole heartly in respecting the whistle and in my 15 year career of competing I'm proud that I never once was called for misconduct. However, out of bounds push shoves and post whistle bumps are all too common (not justifying them). This however, was not a common response.

 The appropriate response as an officail is to place yourself between the athletes without physically threatening or harming them and make the call firmly against the agitator.Shifter placing a hand on the chest or shoulder is perfectly acceptable and would have sufficed in this situation. Punk wrestlers are a problem and bad for the sport. Punk officials are worse. He should have remained above the behavior he was repremanding.

The paper was incorrect. Tim was not disqualified. Then team forfeited the match because of what happened. This video makes me furious everytime I watch it.

This official is way out of line! Amazingly this did not escalate. If the wrestler was such a “punk” as some have stated why did he not retaliate??? The fact is the Ref is not only out of line here, there is “NO” circumstance that would warrant this type of behavior from an “official”.  Even the coach I though remained remarkably calm.  For those that say he was just restraining the wrestler or his hands were not in an inappropriate place watch again. When the video is in slow motion you can see the pressure applied to the throat.

Anyone ever study martial arts?  An "attacker's" windpipe (aka throat) is a means of defense and capable of killing if done improperly.

Sorry Ref, you should hereby be retired, permanently banned, and gladly pay any resulting lawsuit.  You are lucky you aren't sitting in prison for homicide.

Please show what lead to the official's wrongful act.

Underthesu - if an official is actually giving pointers off the mat...that's coaching, not being an official...appears YOU may have lost sight of what an official's role is. At young age levels there is nothing wrong with doing things like positioning kids correctly in referee's position and such...but off-mat pointers??? No, no, no, no, a thousand time no.

Dread Wrestler - you lose all credibilty by saying "as a former coach....consistently wrong on several of his calls". I hate to be so blunt about this, but is a stone cold fact (and fans, you should pay attention next time you react to what a coach is yelling matside) that most HS coaches know nothing of positioning for an official, and extremely little about rules and their interpretations. Now Dread...you may be an exception...but I find it awfully hard to take your comment at face value knowing how little most coaches actually know about how a match is supposed to be called. (btw...I am a wrestling and football official in New Hampshire and Massachusetts...maybe it's better in Michigan...but I work with a former DI college official and DIII college coach, and he couldn't be more dismissive of coaches and their 'knowledge' as it pertains to officiating).

That said...without seeing the whole incident, it's difficult to say how wrong the official in question is, but he is certainly wrong on some level and deserves to be punished in some way. Just how mauch and how far isn't in any way clear.

As a 25 year official I have, on occasion, had to step in between 2 fighting wrestlers.  In one case, I actually had to knock one wrestler down and lay down on him in order to protect him from his attacker.

I have looked at this video several times.  1. We don't know from the video what this kid had just done.  IF he was swinging at his opponent, it would not be out of line for the official to restrain him in some way or shove him back for the protection of the other wrestler.  2.  It is not clear that the ref had him by the throat.  It appears to me that the index finger is extended, the rest of his hand is closed, and that he is merely shoving the kid back and away from the other wrestler.  He does not  have his hands (plural) at the kid's throat.  The other hand is on his arm.  3. Clearly, this kid had done something to make the ref angry.  We don't know what that was.  

What we see here, is the official's left hand on the kid's collarbone for less than half a second.  Once  the ref lets go of him, his hand does not go back to the wrestler.  His other hand has the kid's arm for 4 seconds and once he lets go of the arm, he points to the table.

Was the official angry?  Obviously.  Was the anger inappropriate?  We don't know because we don't know what set him off.  

I don't usually yell and a participant like that.  AND, I don't usually get angry enough to even want to.  Have I yelled at a coach?  Of course.  He deserved it.

Obviously there are some blanks that need to be filled in here.  If there is other video, more light will be shed on the event.  Until then, it's too early to jump to conclusions.

2010 it nothing like 1985 when I was in high school....lets string the ref up by his neck till dead, geez....sensitive people in Michigan! Seems to me like the videotaper has an agenda vs this guy.......

Elkins was not disqualified as stated in the article. The Coach was not present at the tournament and the assistant coach forfeited the match.

It’s absolute BS wanting to suspend, let alone arrest the ref? Kids today take NO responsibility for their actions and it seems there are no consequences for those very actions.  This is society problem.  Helicopter parents hovering over kids, blindly looking as if they do nothing wrong and pounce on someone in authority when their child gets in trouble.

Little Timmy behaves badly, gets put in his place and now you blame the “Man”.  We only see the ref stopping a fight.  We see nothing of the kid’s actions (definitely poor actions I bet).  I believe the ref took actions to stop an over-the-line aggressive kid.  I don’t blame the ref for a split second reaction to breaking up a fight.  Yes he reached and grabbed the kid’s neck but does anyone think this was at all premeditated?  The ref broke up a fight and took control of the bout.  I say he did a good job.

Instead of blaming the ref, the right question is to look at little Timmy and discipline him for his poor judgment and actions that CAUSED the ref to react in such a manner.  If Timmy was smart, he would treat this as a life lesson.

Then again, it’s always easier to blame others for your actions.

It really is too bad out-of-towners are spouting off here with their anonymous expertise, especially without reading the other posts.

The reporter, Mickey Alvarado needs to be commended for his quick reaction in taping the amount he did after realizing the situation had escalated.   All of you demanding to see what went on before the taping have failed to read that the match was NOT being taped and it was his quick response that showed us even the portion it did.

All of you self-proclaimed and so-called experts in the field of refereeing and/or wrestling know officials DO NOT place hands in an agressive manner on any athlete, let alone a High School athlete.  As someone stated before he could have accidentally killed the kid with that stupid throat technique... and that is not acceptable in ANY state or in ANY decade.

jjs...You made a pretty good case in presenting another view until you did just what you argued against.  You blamed the kid for Erich's actions!   The wrestler did what wrestlers will often due in competition.  He was overengaged and needed the ref to intervene and manage the match.

From what we see on the video he apparently needed to intervene before things degenerated between the two wrestlers, but he clearly should never have use a pinch on the windpipe to intervene.  I suspect that Erich has already beaten himself up far more than any of us possibly can.  He is a bright, strong-willed, quality official who made a crucial mistake.  He will take his lumps, whatever they are from the MHSAA and the proverbial "court of  public opinion," and perhaps return an even better official.

I hope that the wrestler, his parents, coach and Erich all have a chance to be in the same room to clear the air at some point.

If the coaches thought the refs behavior was out of line, dont you think they would have appeared upset in the video? The coach obviously goes straight to the wrestler to pull him to the side rather than confronting the ref.

Are you serious? I would be willing to bet that all of the post's here are by adults. If you are posting on here and whining about this ref pushing (NOT choking) this kid by the throat Heres your sign that you may part of the reason we have so many soft, disrespectful, un willing to pay the price to be great, punk azz kids running around today. Heres your sign that YOU are part of the problem why many schools have dwindling numbers in football and wrestling. You teach lil Johnny that its ok Johnny you can act like a complete moron on the wrestling mat and you should not expect any repercussions. Give me a break! For those of you whiny, crybaby parents that GIVES everything to your spoiled lil brat, and defends his every action, HERS YOUR SIGN that you are the problem not the solution!

Can't even think for himself, needs to hack the lines from a stand-up comic. Here's your sign ... GetALife! 

Shoving, pushing, choking ... whatever, NOTHING justifies the refs hands on his throat.

 Bet you even dress like a cable guy, doncha there bubba?

The wrestler's initial reactions were inappropriate and the referee did his job of stepping in, in order to protect the other wrestler and restore order on the mat. Was the referee wrong with putting his hand on the wrestler's throat? Yes. But he does not deserve to be arrested or have a lifetime ban from officiating. The official's intent was to seperate the two and make it clear that the poor behavior would not be tolerated. Now as a coach I would be very upset if the official put his hands on my wrestler's throat, but he was attacking him. The official deserves a punishment of some sorts because he could have handled the situation better but the wrestler is to blame for this whole situation.

He is human and we all have a fight or flight instinct. The ref took charge, but should have had better judgement on how to seperate the wrestlers. Suspension for the remaining year is efficient and gets the message across. Anger management classes and all this other stuff is ridiculous.

The fact of the matter is that if Tim would have put his hands on the Ref in that manner, he would be in Maurice Spears right now! This guy was way out of line.

I'm not going to speculate as to cause or anything else, but there seems to be an amazing amount of misinformation here regarding the throat grab. Official had the sides of the throat for about a half second, not the trachea, not against the arteries. While threatening and inappropriate this is not particularly dangerous to the wrestler, who works his neck daily. He has to; the head is an important extra limb used like an arm or leg for control and support. I find it interesting that posters here claim expertise in wrestling and claim, as Freedom did: "he could have accidentally killed the kid with that stupid throat technique... "  Were that the case we'd have dead wrestlers every time a crossface slipped to a throat. I'll let the schools and officials association deal with the rest, but hyperbole and hysteria really don't help the situation.  

 For the record I AM from out of area, one of the reasons I don't want to judge the situation. I'm also an adult, an official, a wrestler and a parent of wrestlers. Proud to be so.

Ask yourself or better yet ask an expert, like a law enforcement officer or your local prosecuters office, ask anyone for goodness sakes...what would've happened to that kid had the roles been reversed and the kid had grabbed the "referee" the way he was grabbed?  Food for thought. 

You are right Concerned, as the post just a couple of comments up said, he would be housed at the Maurice Spears facility for youthful offenders right now.

But as I stated earlier as well, it is not just a role reversal possibility, it is double standards for sports too.  Had a teacher, administrator or any school-associated person put his/her hands on a student's throat, while being videotaped, you would see this story on everything from Nightline to Springer.

What a unfortunate incident that took place on that mat. It's not the first time something like this has happened or will it be the last. No matter what events led up to the action of this ref, his reaction will never be acceptable.  These are kids playing a very aggressive sport, and of the three participants that are on the mat at one time, the referee should be the one with the "cool" head. HIs job is to maintain control of the wrestlers but also his own emotions. If you follow HS wrestling or know someone who does, they will tell you that this referee has a reputation of "bully tactics" and has had numerous complaints before this incident. SO I agree, he needs to reported to the proper authorities and hopefully he will not be around our young athletes any more. 

On another note, I do wonder where the coach was during this? You see him (or the assistant coach) at the end of the clip but not until then. I know as a former coach you are responsible for your athlete and if he did something to agitate the referee to that extent, I would be the first one he would have to deal with. But you also need to be there to protect him from wrong doing, NO referee will ever grab one of my athletes that way! Where are you coach?