Some Changes to Ohio's Wrestling Assessments

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.

An open question to ATs covering wrestling

History
Several years ago, the NFHS followed the NCAA, NJCAA, and the NAIA in implementing the weight certification process for high school wrestling. I had the unique opportunity to offer input into how the rule was written for Ohio. Before I ask my question, let me explain what we are doing in Ohio high schools. We are using skin fold calipers and urine dipsticks as required by the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Furthermore, the OHSAA has a required parental consent form for the urinalysis. Also, there is a two tiered system of certified assessors. We maintain both master and general assessors. The difference is that general assessors can only perform an initial assessment. The master assessors can perform the initial assessment, the first appeal assessment, and conduct the class required by the OHSAA for new general assessors.  There is also a second step appeal by using a BodPod air displacement test or an underwater weighing, both of which are performed by labs approved by the OHSAA.

My question to my fellow ATs is regarding the urine dipsticks. When the rule was being written, I conducted a pilot of the weight assessments with the cooperation of most of the schools in our conference. At the time, we used refractometry to do the urinalysis. However, a short time later, a coworker from the hospital's lab asked me how we were able to get CLIA certification to perform the refractometry. I was left staring at her with a very dumb look on my face. She referred me to the CMS site to look at the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment. What I found was discouraging. Refractometry, when used to determine a health plan, required an expensive license to perform. There is a waiver that can be obtained, but it required payment for individual tests. That quickly got equally expensive for the number of wrestlers we were looking to test statewide.

When I recognized this issue and brought it to the attention of the OHSAA, they balked at the idea of using refractometry and decided to use the urine dipsticks instead.  The dipsticks required a very small waiver fee and the OHSAA pays that each year for all the assessors in Ohio.  Therefore, for the last six years, we have been using the dipsticks.

By now, my question should be obvious, what is everybody else doing to stay legal while performing the refractometry assessments?  Any information would be helpful since I now have two refractometers sitting in my desk collecting dust.  One brand new and never used and the other is only used the one day of the pilot test.

The following section is included to prevent other questions about why Ohio did what they did in other parts of the assessment.
The OHSAA also decided to the skin fold calipers instead of the BIA because of the cost and questionable accuracy associated with BIA.  I had no issues with this, but this was also why Ohio decided that there would be a class required before being eligible to perform the assessment.  In doing so, the OHSAA could assure better competency with the skin fold calipers by the assessors.  To further ensure competency and credibility, the OHSAA mandated that the minimum requirements for an assessor was a bachelor's degree in a related health field.  That standard includes MD, DO, DC, PT, ATC, RNs, dieticians, and exercise physiologists.  Needless to say, there were some very unhappy health club employees out there (personal trainers, fitness trainers, etc.) because they were excluded from the rule.  Since I am a master assessor, I fielded more than one angry call about why they were excluded when they wanted to become assessors found they weren't eligible to take the class.