I hate the idea of 'team' penalty points. The day will come (probably has already) when it decides a dual. Anything that occurred within a match can be rectified in that match, anything extracurricular or done by coaches could be resolved via some other means - ejection from the match, after mat sanctions, or what have you.
Team penalty points have decided the outcomes of quite a few high school matches I've attended. I believe they have determined the winners of college matches as well, though off the top of my head I can't remember a recent match where penalty points changed the outcome of the match.
Wrestling is somewhat unique, in that it's an ongoing team competition, but it's compromised of 10 individual competitions in college, more in high school, and even more in middle school, etc. In that context, I'm not sure how your points are valid. Illegal activity in a match usually costs that individual wrestler, as their opponent is awarded a point. Similarly, illegal actions by a coach can lead to their being ejected, though it usually is handled as a warning or a deduction of a team point (which has nothing to do with any of the 10 individual matches). In the first case, the incident took place after the match was completed, and a winner had been declared. There isn't anything that can be adjusted on that match.
Help me out but I can't think of another sport where you can deduct points from a team score.
Well, again it's a bit of apples and oranges, as most competitions have things that are unique to them. Wrestling has the individual competitions that are melded into a team competition. In football, which is one ongoing competition, illegal activity becomes a foul against the team that committed it (either a player or a coach), which gives the opposing team an advantage. In basketball, incidents that are equivalent to the deduction of team points are technical fouls. So while a team score isn't deducted for a technical foul, the opposing team gets to take a free throw -- almost giving the team an addition point or points, which is basically the same thing. In soccer, players and coaches can be red carded (for those that are sticklers for the rules, in FIFA matches coaches are dismissed but not red carded, while in US high school competitions, coaches are red carded) after a match is completed. That doesn't impact the score of the competition, but it usually results in the player or coach not being able to participate in the next match. In some soccer tournaments, teams do have points deducted for any red cards that are issued to them (not from the score of the match, but from their tournament score which determines who makes the semis and the finals). In the broader context, what wrestling does isn't that far out of the norm.
So I might have given Mackall a (not very stern) verbal, until Tropea shoved back. With the retaliation, absolutely docking both guys to send the message to the remaining wrestlers on both teams.
Pretty much the way most refs would have handled it. As Tropea's reaction was almost immediate, it didn't allow for the ref to just deal with Mackall, and decide whether to give him a verbal lashing or deduct a team point. Once Tropea reacted, the ref had to deduct a point from both teams.
While Mackall's actions don't seem to be of a malicious intent, he's more at fault here than anyone. At every level he's wrestled, after the match the wrestlers would shake hands in the center of the mat. For whatever reason, he elected to alter that process, and I don't blame Tropea for the way he reacted.
