My son has another big tournament this weekend. This one is in Missouri. Missouri is a hotbed for high school wrestling. Kansas schools don’t wrestle across the border very often. Two of the top teams in the state of Missouri were at this tournament.
My son pinned his first four opponents. In the fifth bout of the evening (you read that right!), he faced the third ranked wrestler in Missouri’s Group 4 (the big high schools).
I usually shout encouragement (and a little instruction since I don’t know all that much) to him during the match. However, I was in full throttle yelling mode for this one. It turns out that the other kids parents were sitting two chairs away from me. I am sure that they thought I was one of those maniacal psycho parents. I certainly was acting like one!
I was so nervous…
Well, that’s not quite true. I was nervous and scared.
I was trying to describe the match to my wife and came up with this. My son is not a good wrestler…yet! He is just really good at wrestling. What do I mean by that?
He has so much to learn. I can see that and I don’t know that much. But, he has such heart. He is tough as nails and he just has a knack for knowing what to do.
It was a thrilling match. There were at least three big scrambles. A scramble is where one kid looks like he has just made a great scoring move only to have it turned around on him and finding himself in trouble when just one moment before it looked like he was in control. Bodies are flying, muscles are rippling as two young men try to force their will on each other. You really have to see one but when you do, I don’t care who you are, you will be shouting!
The other kid was a very good wrestler. As soon as the match began, he was pushing the action. Throughout the match, my son was frequently reacting. Yet, after two periods, he was leading by a 7-5 score!
However, a match lasts 3 two minute periods.
With a minute to go, my son broke free from his opponent’s grasp to gain one point. The score was now 8-5.
He was leading, but it was very obvious that my son was very tired. The kid started pressing the action even more.
Their next tussle tool them out of bounds. My son was so slow walking back to the center of the mat to resume the match that he received a warning for stalling.
He dove in to grab my son’s legs. He fought him off and the third big scramble was on! When the dust had settled, my son came out with the takedown…
10-5 with 30 seconds left…
My son somehow managed to put the kid on his back to get 3 more points! He beat the #3 wrestler in the state of Missouri by a score of 13-5!
I’m exhausted!
