Toska Adams: The Journey is Never Over, Giving Back to the Sport of Wrestling
Once upon a time, before girls and women were competing on the mat, women were behind the scenes supporting and organizing wrestling events in roles such as paring master. This person was responsible for hand writing the brackets, recording the wins/loses, determining who would wrestling who in consolations, wrote out the bout sheets, and sent them to the assigned mats. This was a coveted role before technology like TrackWrestling took over that job entirely. The idea of women being on the mat was a different story entirely... as competitors or as referees. Today however, the avenues and opportunities for women within the wrestling world are expanding rapidly. The women who were once behind the scenes pairing at tournaments, are taking front and center roles. One of those women, referee Toska Adams, has been a part of changing the mind set of a women’s role within wrestling. Today, it is no longer rare to see a female referee on the mat. Toska sees her role as an important opportunity to show other young women the possibility of raising the hands of our sports future greats.
How Toska became a referee
“My son began wrestling in Middle School. When we began freestyle season, we would travel around the state to different tournaments. Since he was a schoolboy heavyweight, we would often drive 2-3 hours for him to only wrestle 1 or 2 times. Some of my friends invited me to get involved with running the tournaments. I tried pairing for one year, but that was not for me. The next year I decided to start refereeing. That was over 20 years ago.”
Why you should referee
“Anyone, male or female, can become a referee. Contact referees in your state and find out what tournaments they are going to and ask if you can go along. Women now have the same opportunities as men to officiate wrestling due to the speed in which women’s wrestling is growing.’
‘I have so many favorite moments as a USAW referee. Receiving the 2014 USA Wrestling Women of the year at Fargo was great. Being elected by my fellow officials to the USWOA board. Meeting wrestlers who have grown up and tell me they have family pictures with me raising their hand at a tournament. During the past two years, countless people including coaches, parents and wrestlers have come up to me to tell me how much they had missed me officiating and they are all glad I returned. Wrestling is about the people!”
How has being a referee impacted your life?
“When I became a FILA (now UWW) official, I had the opportunity to travel overseas a number of times. One of my favorite tournaments I traveled to several times was the all women’s tournament in Sweden. I have also traveled all over the United States to tournaments. Because I am a teacher, during the summer I have been able to combine sightseeing with my travels to tournaments. My favorite memory is the year I traveled to the women’s college duals in Iowa. The first day of the tournament was my birthday, and the girls sang happy birthday to me while they were warming up.”
“Do not let ANYONE tell you that you cannot officiate wrestling. There are still people that believe women should not be part of wrestling. They are wrong! I have always worked very hard and learned as much as I can to continue to improve and be a better official. I found that to be equal, I had to be better.”
