Wrestling

Yes, I will admit, that I am a fan of wrestling. Not the WWF stuff, but real school wrestling, folkstyle they call it. I've been around the sport almost 2 decades between watching my husband in high school, then my brothers, then watching my husband coach my brothers, and now my son. And, I have to say that it is a tough sport. Think hand to hand combat with technique and rules.

I know I posted before about the sportsmanship aspect of some of the tournaments - http://thoughtsofval.blogspot.com/2009/01/sportsmanship.html and, there will always be parents and kids, coaches and refs that may not always act as they should. I could name more than a handful of incidents from the last two days of sitting in gyms; however, I also feel that this unfortunately happens with every sport. Anyway, today and yesterday, it was the "good" things that hit me about the tournaments and the sport.

I saw one of my husbands favorite wrestlers, fight off his back and turn around and pin his opponent. It was so great, because it was a JV kid that my husband pulled up because he has a heart the size of Texas. This kid will give it 110% all the time, and while he is not even close to having a winning record, he earned a spot yesterday based on his heart alone. This kid is, too put it nicely, height challenged and a little on the heavy side. All of his opponents are much taller and built stronger than he is, but for the life of them, they cannot pin this kid. He may lose, but he will last the entire three periods and give it all he has the whole time. We all love this kid, we love to watch him wrestle, win or lose, just to see the display of guts that he has. I think a lot of his opponents are shocked after they go three rounds with him, as I know some of them initially think, "easy pin ahead," and then find it's not so.

When this kid one, the whole crowd cheered, one of our coaches had tears in his eyes and jumped about 18 inches off the ground. It was such a "feel good" moment that all the other stuff that is usually annoying at tournaments just didn't matter anymore. It was all worth it to see that one kid get a win.

Now, as a female, I don't remember that many individual matches. My brain just doesn't function that way, whereas, all the guys can say remember 25 years ago when so and so wrestled so and so, at such and such school, and won 5 - 4... What? Who remembers that stuff? Like I said, not many female brains work that way (generalized gender comment maybe, but I believe it is fact). But this match, I will remember. I will remember seeing this kid gut it out, and give it all. As they say, "The first period goes to the kid with the best technique; the second period goes to the kid in the best condition; and the third period goes to the kid with the biggest heart."