This past May, the OHSAA asked all of the state's master assessors to join them in Columbus for a meeting. At this meeting various issues regarding the assessment program were discussed. Chief amongst these complaints were the unauthorized changes that occasionally occurred to some kids' records after they were entered into the database by the assessors.
This was an experience that I had dealt with last year when I performed an assessment on a young man only to have the information inadvertently deleted by another assessor. This assessor thought that the young man's information was somehow a "leftover" from last year and never got deleted, for whatever reason. While this was not a big deal and I was able to reenter the information very quickly, there were other instances around the state where changes were being made of a much more troublesome magnitude.
Therefore, beginning this year, once the data has been entered into the database by the assessor, only a master assessor can go back and edit the information. If a mistake is made by the assessor, then they must contact a local master assessor and request the edit after providing a copy of the individual profile form that they recorded all the data on. It is the hope of the OHSAA that this will limit some of the issues that we have seen in the past.
The coaches also made one request of the OHSAA to "close a loophole" in the rule. The part of the rule the coaches had a problem with was that a kid could fail an initial hydration assessment and then try again two days later with the same general assessor (these are usually the schools' athletic trainers) without a second team there to make sure that everything is being done properly. (Part of the previous rule required a minimum of two teams present to perform these assessments to limit cheating. However, it was understood that for the one or two stragglers that couldn't make the assessment or failed the first assessment that the assessor could just do them individually.)
This year, the wrestler that fails their initial hydration test must go to another assessor for the test if the original assessor it that school's AT. It is the hope of the coaches that by doing it this way, there is less chance for cheating. This does not apply to the master assessors.
Finally, a rule that didn't change but was heavily reinforced by the OHSAA this year was requirement of 48 hours need to pass before a wrestler can retest following a failed hydration test. There were many stories of kids who would fail the initial test in the morning and would then schedule an appointment with another local assessor later that day to retry and get the test done. This was happening far too often because the assessor who did the first exam was not getting to enter the data immediately following the exam when a wrestler failed, if they entered it at all. It was stressed to all the assessors that in the event if a failed hydration test, entering the data immediately is the only effective means of preventing a kid from getting retested within 48 hours of the initial test. Hopefully, this emphasis will help to alleviate this problem.
In closing, if there are any questions from any Ohio general assessors, please feel free to ask your local master assessor first before contacting the OHSAA. The OHSAA gets bombarded with questions that are easily answered by the master assessors and we can help to ease tis burden by following some common sense protocols like this.
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