Wife and I showed up about ten minutes before 9:00am, to make sure we were on time and to get good seating. There were even less parents this time than on Wednesday night even though there were five schools present. We set up our waters, I got my camera mounted on my tripod and we waited for the days events. I like that they play the Star Spangled Banner before the start of any activity and there is a huge American flag in the gym proudly displayed.
The first match of the day was also the only girls match, and it was quite aggressive. The girls were in the 106 pound class, so they were tiny things, but they fought just as strongly as the big boys later in the day. The girl that won seemed to have the advantage of height but I am not sure if that matters so much in this sport, they tend to stay at about the same size because of the tight weight classes. The next thing I noticed was how wore out the kids were at the end of their matches, specially when they went the full three rounds, the kids were just left in heaps and some had a hard time getting back to their teammates, I even thought they were just being dramatic, but even Baby A said he was tired after the first match.
Speaking of, Mijo had two matches in his weight class. The first one seemed like the other kid was a good 5 inches taller even if they were the same weight. I did not like the optics, but our boy fights like a bigger animal than he is. He was easily dominating the other guy, he admitted that he got cocky after wards because he could feel he was stronger than the other guy. Within a minute, Baby A had gone up 5 points to zero, but then he took him down to the mat, and somehow lost his balance and got rolled sideways and while trying to escape rolled himself onto his back and got pinned. I don't think he was given the chance to even attempt to escape, the referee was quick to count it out. I'm not knocking the ref, the poor guy did all the matches and it takes a very skilled eye to see and catch every nuance. Still, Mijo seemed okay after the loss, it was only his second meet so it is more than reasonable that he will meet kids with more skills and some might even be stronger than him, not that he would ever admit to that, or so I thought.
There was a bunch of other matches as they went through all the weight classes, but eventually they got to his class weight again and once again, the opponent seemed bigger and this one looked more athletic too, not just a big boy. I was worried he would loose a second match and he would be upset. The small caveat was that the coach came over to introduce himself to us at intermission. He asked what it took to get our boy to get mad, he is always so nice and never seems to loose control. I could only think to compare him to a certain other "strong guy" on the team. My son, like me, does not like to hear that other people are better than him at anything, unless they are supposed to be, like a senior should be better than a sophomore. The coach told him this and that before the match, like so and so would have beat the last guy and not let him win. That got a little under Mijo's skin, he admitted it after. This second match was so intense, we couldn't help it, the coach started yelling at him after the first round ended and that got us yelling and our adrenaline going. The other kid was stronger, he took our boy down three times, but one way or another (Baby A says that is what his huge thighs are for) he stood up with the other kid on his back and refused to be laid on his back. I think he just overwhelmed the other guy and he got tired because by the fourth time they went to the mat, Baby A ended up on top of him and pinned his lower body so he wouldn't escape. We all then yelled for him to "FINISH HIM!" and "come on, you can do it!" and anything else that comes out when you feel the win coming. He scooted himself up the boy's torso and got a pin. It was very dramatic and exciting to witness in the moment.
After this, I could not imagine him having to do that again, and the coach announced there would be one or two more matches and that would be it. It seemed fitting once Mijo got a win to enjoy the moment and get on out of there. He has now had three matches and won two of them, so he is doing pretty good. He still has a lot to learn, he admits he doesn't know what the coach means when he is told to perform a half nelson or the names of other moves, but he will slowly get there.
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