Gilmer High School’s wrestling appeal to the Georgia High School Association has been denied.
The school submitted the appeal last Monday, Jan. 24, and received the verdict a day later.
Gilmer’s appeal stems from a scoring error in the third to last bout of the Class 3A state duals finals that impacted the outcome.
Gilmer County athletic director Paul Standard addressed the board of education at its regular session last Thursday, Jan. 27, to share the news.
“I believe you all have had an opportunity to look at the video that unfortunately the Georgia High School Association will not allow and not look at,” Standard said. “Our young men under coach Josh Ghobadpoor did a great job last Saturday (Jan. 22) up in Stephens County.
“We obviously had an issue with an erroneous score awarded to Rockmart High School. To all of our efforts to no avail, we could not convince the GHSA to take a look at the video or audio evidence we presented because that is not part of their bylaws at this time. It’s also not part of the national federation’s rules. Whether they looked at that video or not, I have no idea.”
The scoring error occurred in the 145-pound bout between Gilmer’s Carson Bentley and Rockmart’s Hunter Wilson. Rockmart held a 28-18 team lead at the beginning of the bout, and GHS needed wins to keep its title hopes alive.
Wilson was incorrectly awarded two points by scorekeepers in the second period, and the score was never corrected. He went on to win the bout by one point. The 31-18 team score was too much for GHS to overcome with just two bouts left. Rockmart forfeited those bouts to two of Gilmer’s top wrestlers and came away with a 31-30 win and state championship.
“Don Corr, representative of the GHSA, did submit his findings and said, unfortunately, they could not look at that. And because the mistake was not discussed or protested in the right time period, then they could not go back and correct a score. We all know in this room that our young men deserve the opportunity to continue in that match, but unfortunately, that’s not happening,” Standard said.
While the GHSA contends the matter was not addressed directly, that was not the case. Head coach Josh Ghobadpoor did protest the score during the bout, but was turned away by referees.
“That’s what’s left up to interpretation,” Ghobadpoor said. “I went up to signal to the side official in the second period, but definitely in the third period, I went up there and said ‘the score’s wrong’ and they just said they weren’t changing it.”
Board chairman Ronald Watkins wondered how a school can win an appeal if video and audio evidence is not allowed. Standard, who will be Region 6-3A’s representative to the GHSA beginning next fall, hopes to change that.
“I’m going to present a proposal to the GHSA for us to maybe change that rule to allow for video or audio evidence if there’s an appeal with a conflict in a contest,” Standard said. “I do want our community to know our young men did a great job and still have an opportunity to win a traditional state championship.”
Ghobadpoor echoed that sentiment and plans to focus on what is ahead.
“I feel like our administration was very much behind us and supported us. The things that we could do, we did,” he said.
“At that point, it’s up to the governing body to make those decisions. We have to get back to work, and there’s still a title for us to win or lose. A lot of these 17 state championships that Gilmer has are traditional titles. We try to remind our kids that’s as much of a state championship as anything else. We’re just getting back to work, which has helped with the situation.”