Wrestling



The boys came home one day from school with flyers about wrestling, and they both were super excited and wanted to sign up! We hadn't moved up to Ririe yet, and so I kind of put it off and said we probably wouldn't do it this year, because of the inconvenience of driving there and everything. Truthfully, I was hoping they would forget about it and the whole thing would blow over. But nope, it didn't. We had hoped, as parents, we could have them brain washed that wrestling was not very fun and not a sport they would want to try, but sadly realized we had not done our job, and our boys wanted to wrestle! Damien and I both know NOTHING about wrestling, except for the tight little outfits and smelly wrestling rooms, so we were not super excited for it to begin. But wanting to give the boys a chance to try it, (and secretly hoping they would hate it), we signed them up. The first couple practices were a little annoying figuring out, but then we were able to move up there and it was a lot easier to haul them around to practice.

Their first wrestling tournament was held on November 3rd, at Skyline High School.  We were supposed to be there at 5:30 pm for weigh ins (I didn't really know what that meant, but showed up at 5:30 with all the kids-Damien had practice so wasn't able to come until later)  We walked in the school and found the end of the line-seriously they had 400 wrestlers show up, from grade six to preschool-and the line was forever long!  We stood in line for over an hour, paid our $10 fee, and waiting again for about 45 minutes to get a turn at one of the few scales they had set up.  All around me were little kids (and not so little kids) stripping down to the skivvies and getting weighed.  I asked the boys if they were supposed to weigh in with only underwear to which they said they had no idea.  So they opted to take off their shoes and shirt.  After getting weighed, we were told to go into the gym.  When we walked into the gym, it was packed with people and no one knew what was going on.  I tried to find Ririe people, but seriously there were so many people we struggled to move around.  It was already about 7:30, and none of the wrestling had even begun yet!  Needless to say, the night was super disorganized, I was trying to keep my cool in a situation I was unfamiliar with, and boy was I glad when Damien finally got there!



There weren't any of the Ririe coaches there, because they had a tournament for the high schoolers that same day, so I was completely lost of what we were supposed to do, and while Carter and McKoy was wrestling, I didn't know a thing to help them.  Neither did Damien!  I couldn't believe the atmosphere of the tournament-parents yelling at their kids to do things to the other kids that I have been teaching my kids the past nine and seven years NOT TO DO to kids, little wrestlers bawling and whining....It was crazy and after it was over, Damien and I both left with serious tension headaches!   Luckily, we have some seriously tough boys and they did great, but that doesn't mean they both didn't come off the mat bawling their eyes out!

Poor McKoy was so nervous he was in tears before he even started, but he toughened right up after me and his dad's pep talks, and did great.  He got a bloody nose about thirty seconds into his first round, and I didn't think we would get him back out there, but he did it,and he won!

Damien was right down in there, acting like he knew what the heck he was talking about! Ha Ha!

The boys had two more tournaments that season, one in Sugar and one in Ririe, and I left each one with that familiar tension headache!  They ended up doing so good and received lots of medals for first and second places.

The top video shows tough little McKoy giving it all he's got, and he ended up winning this match.  The bottom video shows Carter pinning this kid pretty fast, and yes, that's me yelling, so happy my kid beat up the other kid! (cringe!!!)