RefRanking
Testimonials-Coaches

These testimonials were all provided by wrestling coaches, athletic directors and conference commissioners in the state of Wisconsin.

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The coaches advisory committee met yesterday and we unanimously recommended the WIAA adopt the RefRanking.com model for implementation on ranking wrestling officials. Thanks for all your help. President-WWCA
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This system is by far better than anything I have used in my 31 years of coaching and as an athletic director. It is fast and fair to all, and the best part is that you can do it as the season progresses, which is very good. We all know the end of season ranking is much harder to do when a lot of coaches have had a long season. Thanks to RefRanking for doing this for wrestling.
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Nice job! I have coached for 26 years, and RefRanking.com is the best coaching tool to come out since trackwrestling. This made my job much easier. The pictures really help with the important task of ranking our refs in this state. The waiting period is a smart idea. As a coach, I do get emotional about outcomes of my wrestlers’ matches, and waiting makes a guy look a little more clearly. Thanks for your time to make this great sport of wrestling even greater.
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RefRanking is a very valuable tool for every athletic director. Even if it takes a while for AD’s to begin using the contract function, everyone can benefit from being able to search for available officials. All of us have to schedule refs, and we all have a difficult time finding people that are qualified, want to work for us and are available on a given date. RefRanking solves all of those problems at once. I can see which officials have selected my school as a preferred place to work, which narrows my search to matter of seconds. RefRanking saves me the time of sending out mass emails to many refs in hopes that someone responds in a timely manner. It also saves my school the money necessary to send contracts to all of our refs throughout the year. We have over 400 officials that get sent contracts each year. Some schools have many more. If this was available for every sport, schools would save hundreds of dollars in postage alone. RefRanking is definitely something that we will look back on in the near future and think, “How did we live without it, and why did it take so long for us to figure out a more efficient way?” Thanks for all your hard work! We appreciate it.
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I believe that RefRanking.com is a great way for coaches and officials to work together to better the sport. First, it allows officials to contact each coach, through the website, and remind them which events they worked for a specific team. Second, this process allows coaches to give more immediate feedback as to which officials are doing the best job for us. The current system asks coaches to remember an official that we may not have seen for 3 months and give meaningful feedback. Third, coaches that host events can use this site to contact officials that are available in case of cancellations by other officials (a feature that we used this year for a JV event we host). Lastly, we are in a technology era that allows for cost saving by eliminating paper and mail, and this site certainly goes a long way toward stressing that issue. I believe that what RefRanking has come up with allows coaches to focus more on coaching and less on administrative duties. Thank you to for your efforts.
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I would like to commend the WIAA and RefRanking for taking the initiative to develop a better system to rank officials, specifically for wrestling. I find RefRanking.com to be a much more efficient and practical method to rank officials than any previous method that had been used. I have used it as a coach, athletic director, and an official. RefRanking has features that help everyone in the process, not just ranking. It is an improvement over all previous methods we have been using. I'm sure if you continue with this system it will continue to improve as RefRanking has been great in taking suggestions and making adjustments. I also coach football and officiate other sports. I would recommend that this system be extended to all sports. Thanks again for taking a step forward in this valuable and necessary process of ranking officials.
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RefRanking.com has been great. We can hire officials using the site and we can also rank by the ref’s picture. The picture of the ref is really great. Thanks for the great work.
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Thank you for leading the transition into online officials’ rankings. It was easier than I could have imagined. Due to our schedule already being on the site, I never needed to think back and wonder if a particular referee was at one of our events. In addition, the inclusion of referee pictures made ranking significantly easier and faster. This process solved the issues I originally had with ranking officials. Once all officials have their pictures included, I'd consider RefRanking.com the perfect system.
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I think RefRanking did an awesome job this year. Keep up the great work. Once this goes through as the official ranking system, we can continue to talk about improvements and the new features we discussed at the State Individual Tournament.
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RefRanking.com is a more reliable, efficient and easier way to rank officials. It made the whole process of remembering officials and giving them a fair rank an easy task!
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The RefRanking.com system is the way to go. I think it is wise to use the technology we have to improve our system for ranking officials in the state of Wisconsin. Please keep up the great work to make Wisconsin high school wrestling the best it can be.
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The RefRanking.com system used this year was much better than trying to remember what officials we saw and how they performed at the end of the season. It was nice to be able to go onto the system a few days after an event and give a fair evaluation of an official. Although I knew the names of most of the officials, having their photo available was also a huge help. I would definitely like to see features such as a posting of “officials needed” or “meets wanted” added to RefRanking.com. We had a couple of events last year where I had to search for an extra official or two, and being able to search for the officials using RefRanking.com made it much easier. Also, due to budget cuts, our district has cut the position of Athletic Director starting next year. If I need to take over the job of contracting my own officials, it would be a great help to use that feature as well. Without a doubt, RefRanking.com has improved the usefulness of rating wrestling officials in Wisconsin and I feel very strongly that it should become the method we use from this point forward.
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RefRanking.com has really made possible what was always the goal in wrestling: accurate feedback about the quality of officiating. In the past, this process has always relied on the individual ref (did he give you a card, did it have a picture on it, did you remember his name) and on the coach to keep track of those little slips of paper during a tournament or other event where the majority of your focus is elsewhere. Honestly, when you consider the individual athletes, the team competition, and the other administrative duties associated with getting your team from here to there and ready to compete, ranking the officials was usually last on my priority list the day of a tournament. That has not really changed, but what HAS changed is that with the RefRanking.com, it is very easy to do the rankings and I actually do them. In years past, I did my best at the end of the season to remember or find the ranking cards for who worked our matches and how they did – but now I can go in on Tuesday after a Saturday tournament, pull up the name and picture of every official at the tournament, and give feedback. It takes most of the hassle out of it for coaches – which in my mind will go a long way towards getting a larger sample of rankings, which should mean more accurate rankings.
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I thought this system was slick. I ranked officials on both systems, RefRanking.com and the WIAA ranking system. It is much easier for me to rank officials shortly after an event, rather than to go back at the end of the year and try to remember all officials, even if I have their cards. I really feel this is the way to go for our sport.
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The thing I like the most about the RefRanking.com system is that you can rate the officials 72 hours after the meet while it is fresh in your mind. It is also great to see a picture of the referee and his personal profile as you rate. I have had occasion to try and rate officials for the WIAA and truly cannot remember the person I am trying to rank. Hope we can go to this new system.
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I really enjoyed using RefRanking.com and hope we have it again next year. Thanks!!
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This is by far the best way to rank officials I have seen. Trying to rank through the current system with the WIAA is difficult and time consuming. To be able to go right to your school’s schedule and rank officials while meets are still fresh in your mind is a great system. Officials can get ranked more than once as you see them throughout the year. I cannot tell you how many officials’ cards that have been handed to me in the past and end up going through my washing machine. Without those cards it is nearly impossible to do an adequate job remembering all the officials that have worked the tournaments that we attend throughout the year. RefRanking.com is simple and concise and not at all cumbersome like the end of the year ranking on the WIAA website. I hope this continues to be used for wrestling, and I’m sure other sports would want it too.
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Thanks, RefRanking, for all you have done for the sport of wrestling. This system is awesome!!
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I would like to ask the WIAA to continue to use the RefRanking.com system. The system makes more sense because of the savings in time, and the photos are a big, big help. Please consider this endorsement as it moves forward. I highly recommend it.
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I love RefRanking.com. A picture should be required for all officials. It helps put a face with a name. With a picture, I am sure of who I am ranking. I recommend that we replace the old way of ranking with RefRanking.com.
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I want to let you know that the RefRanking.com site has been very beneficial for the coaches this year. I have heard nothing but positive things about the system. I am also excited about all the other possibilities of the site. I hope we continue to work towards this system as a permanent fixture. Many positive ideas have come out of our meetings as coaches and there is much more that the site could do to have a positive impact on our sport. I am really excited about the possibility of video links with rules explanations. The coaches could view these and see what the proper interpretation of a specific rule is. Thanks again for your efforts with this site! I hope that the site becomes our permanent WIAA ranking system.
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The new RefRanking.com website we used this past season is undoubtedly a step in the right direction toward more complete and accurate rankings of our officials. Some of the biggest advantages that it offers are a picture identification of officials, immediacy of evaluations, convenience, and simplicity. I would also think that this website would have great potential for use in all sports to rank their respective officials. I would think that in future years RefRanking.com will be viewed as a positive advancement for our sport, much the same way Trackwrestling.com is viewed for what that website has done for the state tournament bracketing. I strongly encourage the WIAA to implement the RefRanking.com website as the only means for the referee evaluation process.
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This season I very much appreciated the use of RefRanking.com. With this type of electronic system, it was several fold better than the WIAA system. The simple convenience of placing an official’s face to his name was tremendously helpful. It was also helpful to be able to do this during the season instead of waiting until the end of the season. Because of this system I paid closer attention to my responsibility of evaluating officials. Other helpful uses of the system included locating available officials readily and easily. I can see how this system has potential to add more features as it expands. I am not an AD but I would think being able to send electronic contracts etc. would be very appealing. I suggest this tool becomes a mandatory tool used to rank officials.
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I support RefRanking.com as the sole means of ranking officials statewide. What I like about the system is that it places a face with a name. At least for me, it allowed me to learn the officials names/faces and the quality of their work. I also liked the ease of gaining access to the system and how it populated the officials’ names for my meets/tourneys. I also support improvements proposed to the system that will make it even better for everyone.
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RefRanking.com is truly a remarkable system that allows coaches to provide immediate feedback to referees regarding their performance. I really appreciated the program, because as a young coach I don't remember all the officials’ names. This program allows you to see a picture of each official and provide comments. It is a great system!
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RefRanking.com worked great. It is easy to use and efficient. Thanks for your efforts!
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I have been coaching high school wrestling for 20 yrs and feel responsible to rank our officials. I've tried to create simple systems like collecting ref cards and tracking the ref license number in our score books, but it's not been that simple and there's too many inconsistencies. The best feature I like on RefRanking.com is a picture of the person I'm ranking. If I'm not sure who it is, I don't rank at all, and having the picture helps tremendously. RefRanking.com is very easy to access. It's so personal when we can sign on as a school and only focus on our ref's in our sports. We only see our schedule and that is simple. Please approve this ranking method permanently. Thanks!
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RefRanking.com is wonderful. I try each year to rank all the officials that we see accurately. For the first time, I am confident that I ranked nearly every official we saw and that I was thinking about the correct person when ranking them. I used to have a name and a number and would have to try to remember which official was great, good, or poor at a tournament. Now, I can rank them close after seeing them and use the picture to help when I am unsure which official was which. I log on every couple of weeks with my assistant coach and we objectively rank the officials. Before, I would skip some officials because I just didn't know who they were or I couldn't find their name or number in my notes from a tournament. Thanks for the wonderful tool.
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I would like to take a minute and say what a great tool Ref Ranking has been for me this season! Instead of waiting until the end of the season to rank all referee's I have seen this season, it was a much easier task waiting 3 days and going online to rank them. Plus, if I didn’t know names but they had a picture it was no problem to identify certain individuals. Much better than going by their name or their ref number! I hope the WIAA takes this into consideration for the very near future as it will help to get those referee's down to state that really deserve it!!!!!
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RefRanking.com is the best way to rank officials. It is bad enough that as a coach I have a ton of paperwork, but then I am supposed to hang onto the little slips the officials hand out until it is time to rank. That never worked, at least for me. I always would lose those darn things. And, most of the refs don’t even give you a card. As a coach, I am on trackwrestling entering events, so it is just as easy to hop on RefRanking to rank the officials. RefRanking is the coolest system since trackwrestling, I believe for both the coaches and officials. Thanks for all your hard work. It is greatly appreciated.
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This was my tenth year coaching wrestling and it was the first year I can honestly say I ranked every official I saw. This system made ranking officials very easy. The program is easy to use and having the offical’s picture on the screen made it a whole lot easier to rank all the officials and rank them correctly. Thanks for a great year!
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Having the officials’ pictures is an awesome feature. That makes it so easy for the coaches. Besides the few guys who did not have a picture on the site, it is very simple to use and I would recommend it without hesitation.
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This set-up for ranking officials is great. Very easy. Hope the WIAA will adopt this program. Also our Conference. The Conference form is very difficult and confusing. RefRanking.com would make that just as easy. Thanks for your hard work.
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I would like to express how easy the RefRanking.com has been this season. I believe a great aspect of the system is the ability to see a referee’s picture to help me refresh my memory as to who they are. This past week I rated the referees that I had throughout the season, via the WIAA website, and it is much more difficult. It takes a lot of time to go through and try to place all the refs we had. I knew I recognized some names, however because I could not remember what they looked like I was not sure when we saw them. Therefore, I did not rank them. If a ref gave a card with a picture on it that obviously helped, but many do not give them out, and many get lost throughout the season. However, with RefRanking.com, the pictures are already there and we know who was at each dual/tournament because they are already listed. One more nice aspect is the fact that we can see an email address for the refs in case we are in a bind and need to find somebody to ref an event for us. In closing, I think RefRanking.com is a step in the right direction which will aide in more coaches rating officials constructively throughout the year. Thank you very much!
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I like this system much better than the old way. This should be the way for all officials and coaches to evaluate our Refs. RefRanking.com is a better, more efficient, more accurate way of doing the same thing we have done in the past. Thanks!
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I thought this system was much more effective then the old style. The schedules are in the system already and you just have to click on the ref you had for that event. I really liked it when the ref would add his picture. This would allow me to identify those refs I do not see in our schedule too often. I recommend this system to make less work on the coaches. By the end of the year you are done and do not have to fill out a ranking form for the whole year.
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I was very happy with how quick and easy the program was to use. I would greatly appreciate the use of this program for next year's wrestling season. Most every referee's picture is on the website which makes it a lot easier to rank. I would strongly encourage every referee to have his picture on RefRanking.com to make it easier to remember the referees. I totally believe this is a better program than the one that is being used right now. This program should raise the number of officials because it gives the referees good feedback. Please make the right decision Mr. Anderson (and the WIAA) and adopt this program to continue to improve wrestling in the state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin wrestling has been the leaders in the past with our minimum weight program and trackwrestling.com. This program should be used in the state of Wisconsin for every sport. Thanks!
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RefRanking.com is the way to go! I liked the pictures of all the officials and I knew who I was ranking if I saw them later in the season at other tournaments we didn't wrestle in. This is much easier to use than the WIAA method. This also gives us the opportunity to rank officials we don't see much at big tournaments. I highly recommend we use this form of ranking versus the old way. The other great thing to see is that the refs were already put into the tournaments and meets we went to. I think this would be just nuts if we didn't do things like this in the future. Thanks!
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I think RefRanking.com would be a big improvement over the current WIAA system, I especially like the fact that you can rank guys as the season goes along while the memory of their performance is still fresh in your mind. Also; having the ref's picture on line is a huge help.
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Here are my thoughts on RefRanking: I feel that RefRanking.com has great potential in recruiting new officials in our sport. It is very interactive and provides quick feedback to the officials. In the end, the quality of the officiating will improve in direct relation to the amount of input and comments, both positive and negative, obtained from RefRanking.com. This is just a good system of communication between everyone involved in wrestling. Keep on working at it!
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The Ref Ranking was a great tool for me. I could do it a few days after the meet, which allowed me to do a better ranking rather than at the end of the season. I also had a picture of the official which helped me to remember who was who. This is a great tool.
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Great job on getting this program up and running. This is my first year as head coach and with all the other responsibilities I have had to take over and learn, RefRanking helped out greatly. I know over the past years we tried to get everyone’s rankings done and tried to remember who was who, but we were not able to. We did not rank the Officials like we should have. The officials work hard during the season, just like we do, and they deserve to get the chance to do sectionals and to get to the state tournament. I know they cannot do that with out being ranked. Thanks for all of your hard work!!!!
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Thank you for your hard work with RefRanking.com! This truly is the way to go. Pictures of each referee really helps, along with the listing of meets they refereed. It's easy to forget all of the referees we see during the course of a long season. This process really allows us to give the referees an accurate rating. I used to struggle trying to remember each referee and the job they did. I sincerely hope the WIAA sees the great benefit of this system.
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Great site. Very easy. One thing I would like to see is that every ref is on. There were several times when we had a ref and he was not one listed. It would very helpful to have them all on the site. Otherwise, it is much better than our old way.
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This system was very fast, efficient, and very accurate. In the past, coaches would have to depend on referees giving us ranking cards. Sometimes the cards would have pictures and most of the time not. Many times officials wouldn't even give us a ranking card! It is no wonder why those refs weren't getting ranked and not getting to officiate at the state tourney!! It is very hard to rank an official with out having a picture, especially when you don’t see the refs that often. The convenience of doing this online as the season progresses is much easier. I feel that I can more accurately rank an official with the Refranking.com process. I would like to be able to use this for the mandatory WIAA process. Great job streamlining a difficult task that we need to do more often!
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This has been a great addition to our sport and hopefully this is something that can be used as our primary way of ranking officials.
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I would like to let you know how well the RefRanking website worked this year for ranking wrestling officials. In the heat of the season, when coaches are caught up with practices and competitions, it is difficult to find the time to rate officials. Being able to go to a website, view officials pictures, and quickly rate them is very convenient. I found that this method allowed me to rate more officials than ever before. Not only did I rate more officials, I believe I rated them more accurately. I have found this website superior in other ways as well. For instance, I used it to schedule officials and found it to provide a very streamlined approach to the process. I was able look for available officials on specific dates because the officials' schedules are integrated into the system. That allowed me to find the best officials possible. I also liked how I could click on officials' email addresses to get in contact with them. It was a very quick and efficient process all the way around. I encourage you to strongly consider RefRanking as the accepted way to rank officials. It is a long overdue use of current technology to improve our services to kids.
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Great system!! We will use it all the time now. When will it be available for all sports?!
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