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<p>HERSHEY &#8212; For the last 38 years, one of the staples at the PIAA Wrestling Championships has been John &#8220;Doc&#8221; Hossage, the state rules interpreter.</p><p>Hossage, a resident of Mountain Top and a longtime state official, notified the PIAA back in September that this will be his last year in the post.</p><p>&#8220;I may be lucky. Maybe nobody else wants to do it,&#8221; Hossage joked. &#8220;It&#8217;s been enjoyable. It&#8217;s gonna be different, but there comes a time when it&#8217;s time for somebody else, and time to maybe relax a little.&#8221;</p><p>Hossage, 78, started his love for the sport as a wrestler at GAR and Wilkes. From there, he became an official in the Wyoming Valley Conference 56 years ago. Eighteen years after that, he became the state rules interpreter, and the next season after getting that post, he became the head official.</p><p>The job could be demanding at times.</p><p>After working the state tournament, Hossage would go to multiple meetings and conventions in the offseason, taking up a majority of his time.</p><p>During the season, the obligation means always being on-call in the event that a coach or tournament director has a question about a rule on or off the mat.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a 12-month job. There&#8217;s always something going on,&#8221; Hossage said. &#8220;During the season, it&#8217;s not unusual to get three phone calls in a day, five or six in a week, especially on the weekends with problems, interpretations.</p><p>&#8220;I did it because I liked it. I thought those interruptions were part of the job, and I did the job.&#8221;</p><p>Taking over for Hossage will be District 4&#8217;s Jack Young, who has been the district interpreter and is refereeing at the tournament this weekend. He was appointed to the position earlier this year.</p><p>&#8220;That was my hope that I&#8217;d have him for the duals, which I did, and have him for this weekend to be able to work with him,&#8221; Hossage said. &#8220;He&#8217;s no greenie, he&#8217;s a district interpreter. It&#8217;s his fourth individual state tournament. He&#8217;s done duals. We get along very well.&#8221;</p><p>So next year, for the first time since the 1970s, Hossage has no plans to be visible at the state tournament, as he enjoys his retirement. He also doesn&#8217;t want to put pressure on Young.</p><p>&#8220;I want the next guy to be respected and have a good start, he&#8217;s certainly capable. I kinda don&#8217;t wanna come down next year and look like a shadow,&#8221; Hossage said. &#8220;Then maybe after that, I might come and watch. He&#8217;s a nice guy, he&#8217;s very capable.&#8221;</p><p>While there&#8217;s certainly many positives about being around a sport that he&#8217;s enjoyed being around for so long, there&#8217;s certain drawbacks to it as well. The hardest part of the job for Hossage has been when a wrestler is disqualified from the state tournament and leaves without a medal.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s unhappy to see something like that and I gotta be the one who says he doesn&#8217;t get a medal,&#8221; Hossage said. &#8220;The book&#8217;s a book, rules are rules. Very often, that&#8217;s one of the hard parts. You just gotta apply the rule. Sometimes it doesn&#8217;t seem fair, but a rule&#8217;s a rule.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley Conference wrestling officials recently presented state rules interpreter John &#8216;Doc&#8217; Hossage a gift for his retirement. From left: Tom Williams (board member), Charlie Burns (treasurer), Hossage, Corry Hanson (vice president), Tim McGinley (president), Bob Kuhl (board member). </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_doc.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Valley Conference wrestling officials recently presented state rules interpreter John &#8216;Doc&#8217; Hossage a gift for his retirement. From left: Tom Williams (board member), Charlie Burns (treasurer), Hossage, Corry Hanson (vice president), Tim McGinley (president), Bob Kuhl (board member). </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div>

Mountain Top’s Hossage closing out a lifelong career in wrestling