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Wrestler in hair-cutting incident nets area support
By Brian Dzenis
Behind closed doors at any given high-school wrestling meet across the country, there’s some last-minute grooming to be done.
A wrestler may not pass the mandatory inspections where his or her hair, skin and fingernails may be checked and to get on the mat, some may have to cut their hair if they find themselves without the proper head gear. Scenarios like that have happened in the Mahoning Valley with no fanfare or press.
But a viral video of a New Jersey wrestler getting his dreadlocks trimmed just before a match had some of the area’s wrestling coaches shaking their heads.
“It’s crazy how you have something like this happen in the sport and it gets more attention than [Team USA] winning the world championships,” Boardman coach Dom Mancini said. “That’s the crazy part of it. One little incident and personally, I think it’s been blown out of proportion to the nth degree.”
On Dec. 19 in New Jersey, Buena Regional’s Andrew Johnson was getting ready to wrestle in a match against Oakcrest High School when referee Alan Maloney advised him that he couldn’t wrestle without a sanctioned head cover for his dreadlocked hair. Johnson did not a have the sanctioned head cover so he had a choice: cut his hair or forfeit the match. He had 90 seconds to chose.
Video from local television station showed a Buena athletic trainer trimming the 16-year-old’s dreadlocks. Johnson, who is biracial, appeared emotional in the video, but won his match, 4-2 in overtime.
“I’ve never seen someone cut somebody’s hair matside. All of that happens hours before when the officials are at weigh-ins,” former Canfield coach Dean Conley said. “It should never get out in the public eye and embarrass the kid the way they did. That was sad.”
Buena won the meet, 41-24, but the matter didn’t end there. Accusations of racism against Maloney, who is white, poured forth. The matter is being investigated the state’s Attorney General and its Division of Civil Rights, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Buena hasn’t competed since the incident and Maloney has been held out of working meets during the investigation. Johnson’s family has retained an attorney.
RULES ARE RULES
If a wrestler has any kind long hair — which is defined as going beyond where a shirt collar would be, past ear lobes on the side or past the eyebrows in the front — they have to wear a specific kind head cover that attaches to a wrestler’s head gear. Hair must also be kept in a “natural state.”
“We’ve had kids with dreadlocks or had their hair in small twists and they had to wear those caps,” Liberty coach Hadi Hadi said. “The problem with it is there needs to be some consistency across the board. You can have one ref who rules that it’s in a natural state and then another one says, ‘no, you can’t have that.’
“I think what happened [in Buena] may have been blown out of proportion a bit. You have to have that cap that attaches to the head gear,” he added. “That kid’s hair wasn’t in a natural state. A natural state would have been no braids, twists or anything.
The general rule of thumb among coaches is long hair means a hair cover. Wrestlers are briefed about it at the beginning of the season and most teams carry extra covers or additional equipment in the event of a weigh-in surprise.
Boardman 182-pounder Mike O’Horo wears a head cover for his long blonde hair. In middle school, he had to get an impromptu bowl cut when he didn’t pass inspection. It happened during a weigh-in and no state investigation was needed.
“It was the rule and I understood I was in the wrong because I didn’t have a hair net. My hair wasn’t that long yet, but it was past the eyebrows and ears,” O’Horo said. “We found a pair of scissors and just cut it. The next day I went and got a real haircut so I wasn’t walking around with a bowl cut.”
There are stories like that all though the Valley. Conley said he sometimes had to become an amateur barber in his 18 years with the Cardinals. Mancini has done it as well. Last year, a Leopards wrestler was told to trim his mustache before a meet, Hadi said.
“Sometimes I try to find a mom to do it and if not, me or one of my assistant coaches is getting a pair of scissors and we’ll chop it off the best we can,” said Girard’s Jim Cardiero, the area’s longest-tenured active wrestling coach at 28 years. “We always make the kids aware that their hair is long and the referee is going to catch you. I tell them if it’s going to happen, I can’t change the rule.”
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?
The Buena incident has some gray areas, such as what occurred in the weigh-in leading up to Johnson’s bout. The wrestler’s attorney contends that his hair was initially approved by Maloney and also said Maloney was late to the weigh-in, the Inquirer reported. Maloney hasn’t commented on the incident publicly.
Maloney’s past is also checkered. In 2016, he came under fire when he said a racial slur to a black referee during an officials gathering.
Based on what’s known and from their own experiences, Valley’s coaches interviewed for this story weren’t fans of Buena’s coaching staff.
“I think it’s on the kid’s coach,” former Austintown Fitch coach Brett Powell said. “He didn’t enforce the rules. They all know the rules by the state and they all know what should be allowed and what shouldn’t be allowed and it’s the coach’s job to make sure it’s carried out.
“I was responsible for every one of my kids,” Powell said.
Mancini agreed.
“Everybody knows the rules and that’s what’s mind-boggling about the incident. That the coach didn’t take care of it before all this happened,” Mancini said. “I don’t know the coach, but if he didn’t know the rules or is a young coach, I could see it, but everybody knows those rules.”
O’Horo wasn’t willing to let Maloney slide either.
“For me, every time I weigh-in, the refs ask to see my headgear with the cover attached. The fact that the ref did not do that before the match and then denied the kid the right to wear a hair net. You can’t deny him that right,” O’Horo said. “Most teams have an extra facemask if you break your nose or extra hairnets — everything basically. I really don’t believe that they don’t have one and then on top of that, the ref tells him he can’t put it on.”
A NEW DO?
Conley, who serves as the vice president of the state wrestling coaches association, surmised what happened at Buena is going to come up the next time they meet, but don’t expect a knee-jerk reaction in Ohio.
“I don’t think much is going to change. I guess we could educate people on what the rule is, but I don’t know everything about that situation and what exactly the coach did, but it’s taken an ugly turn,” Conley said. “It’s a shame, there’s so much good going on in our sport and this is what gets reported on.”
Powell, who sits on the OHSAA’s executive board for wrestling, said the current hair rules are about a decade old and took roughly three years to fully implement. They were made because of concerns that a wrestler with long hair could unnecessarily lengthen a match by stopping to adjust is head gear and about abrasive hair that can cut or scrape kids to spread disease.
Changing any rules is a lengthy process. The OHSAA takes its cues from the National Federation of State High Schools and from there decides if Ohio wants to add or opt out of certain rules. The OHSAA would have to form an agreement with the state wrestling coaches association as well as the Ohio Wrestling Officials Association. That process could take a least a year.
“It’s not like some guys can just sit in a room and hand something down,” Powell said.
A strange incident in New Jersey left the Ohio wrestling world perplexed and disappointed. It was something that could have been avoided. For Cardiero, who said he’s sported a shaved head since 1999, too much is being made about what kids want to do with their hair.
“I think they should have [let the kid wrestle]. If they want to have long hair or curly hair they should let them have it,” Cardiero said. “Times are changing and you’re always looking for ways to keep kids coming out for the sport and some boys like their long hair. If they want to have a chance to have it pulled or messed up, let them have it.
“I don’t think its something we need to spend a lot of time on. Kids need to come out, learn the sport, have fun and enjoy it,” Cardiero said. “I don’t think a haircut needs to be the biggest thing in the world.”