Scoggins: At state tournament, you don’t get to wrestle until they say you can

The spectacle that is the Minnesota wrestling state tournament commenced at 7:28 a.m. Thursday with a request over a walkie-talkie.

“Do you have a big rolling garbage can that we can use for fingernails,” the voice said as a tournament official nearby held a large envelope containing nail clippers.

The competitors already know the drill. Long nails will get flagged by the medical staff. Keep ‘em short and smooth, or else you’ll be forced to clip them at the large garbage can.

“We want to be safe and healthy,” said Christy Lamers, a certified athletic trainer who checked roughly 100 wrestlers from head to toe Thursday before the start of team competition at Xcel Energy Center.

Safety first is the credo of this event.

Literally first. Before wrestlers are even allowed onto the mat to begin grappling for glory, they must undergo and pass a full-body inspection for infectious disease, along with a weigh-in.

Wrestling is unlike other sports in that there is nowhere to hide or blend in during competition. The courage required to be in that circle alone with just the opponent is a special gift.

The pre-event health inspection also is unlike anything else in other sports’ state tournaments. A suspicious blotch on a shoulder could mean disqualification.

Nearly 500 wrestlers sat in the stands at sunrise Thursday awaiting the signal. Once teams were called, they formed five lines to be checked by a medical professional. More than 700 wrestlers will go through the process Friday morning and again Saturday before the individual tournament.

Lamers has worked the tournament as an athletic trainer for 10 years. She has her routine down. She checks fingernails and palms and then asks the wrestler to extend arms wide so she can scan the skin. If a kid has floppy hair, she asks it be pulled back so she can observe his hairline. Then the wrestler turns around and she checks the back of the body and head.

The process takes 15 to 20 seconds, and then the next wrestler steps up. Over and over, hundreds of competitors examined and weighed in a half-hour.

“We know exactly what we’re looking for,” Lamers said.

Three things specifically: viral infections (herpes gladiatorum), bacterial infections and fungal infections (ringworm). The nature of the sport with constant skin-to-skin contact can cause infections to rapidly spread.

Minnesota has a renowned doctor in this field overseeing the tournament’s medical operation, B.J. Anderson, affectionately known as the “The Mat Doctor.”

“If B.J. says somebody is OK, they’re OK,” said Brad Skogerboe, who serves as co-manager of the tournament. “If B.J. says, ‘No, that’s a contagious situation,’ nobody is going to argue.”

Anderson has devoted much of his career to the prevention of skin infections in wrestling. He lends his expertise to high school, college and USA Wrestling organizations.

He played a pivotal role when the Minnesota State High School League instituted a statewide shutdown of wrestling for eight days in January 2007 in response to a herpes outbreak. The pause prevented a far worse problem at the state tournament.

“Because we did do that, we only had one kid we pulled out of the state tournament,” Anderson said Thursday morning after performing skin checks. “That was a huge save.”

Anderson has worked this tournament for three decades and said protocols and vigilance are more advanced now. Wrestlers diagnosed and treated for a skin infection must present a skin check sheet signed by a doctor to Anderson during the inspection.

On Thursday, Anderson stood to the side of the five lines conducting his own checks. Any wrestler with a sheet or who was flagged by one of the athletic trainers over a suspicious area had to see Anderson. The doctor used a miniature flashlight to inspect skin areas.

“The goal here is to clear the athlete,” he said, “but more importantly, to prevent transmission.”

That must be a hard job, telling a kid who is in the building, moments away from fulfilling a dream, that he or she won’t be able to take part.

Yes, Anderson said, but the decision is non-negotiable, despite objections from coaches or parents.

“You’ll hear their parents say, ‘The grandma came, she’s on her deathbed, we’ve spent $3,000 here and you’re going to deny him the chance to do this?‘” Anderson said. “And I go, ‘Yeah.’ Somebody has to draw the line.”

The medical officials have heard every story imaginable from wrestlers who are hoping to avoid being pulled from the event: I cut myself shaving. My dog bit me. I burned myself with bleach.

Some wrestlers have used bleach on their skin trying to treat ringworm.

“We know the tricks,” Lamers said.

Thankfully, every wrestler was cleared for the team event Thursday, a sign that those involved — from wrestlers to coaches to parents — accept the seriousness of keeping the sport safe.

“If we don’t catch those things, they get spread,” Lamers said. “I don’t want to be responsible for that.”

She did have a chuckle with one of the wrestlers over an ailment. The kid had a nice shiner on his eye.

“I could hardly see out of it for a while,” he told her.

No sweat. He’s a wrestler. He’s tough. A black eye isn’t going to slow him down today.