Today was the district meet for wrestling and although it was much smaller than in recent years, there was still so much action to see and learn from. Just a couple weeks ago, we had sat near one of the other parents and learned that the district meets of the past had been two day events, starting on a Friday night and continuing through an entire Saturday until the evening. This year, because so few kids joined the team, the whole tournament was done in one day, specifically from around 9:00am until 4:00pm or so.
I am still bothered by the fact that the heavyweight boys are in a bracket with so much range. As I have whined before, the smaller weight categories fight within a tight gap of 6-10 pound differences, which makes the kids be about the same size, there is literally a range from 220 to 285 pounds, 65 pounds is a huge difference to then call it a fair fight, it is more than half the weight of the four lightest weight classes (106, 113, 120, 126 pounds). How is it fair for a kid weighing 221 to be matched to a kid weighing 285, but legally, that is what happens.
I only complain about this, because my son was outsized tremendously, and on top of that, it was his first year, so he wasn't even fully experienced, so I should not be surprised how it turned out. I am used to Mijo being the shortest kid, he kind of likes that, it gives him a little bit of a sneak attack advantage, he feels. But I didn't expect the competition to all be as big as they were. Our boy started the year weighing around 230 pounds, but is now a pretty strong and healthy 250 pounds. It sounds good, but one of the kids (the same one who beat him in the last regular meet) is on the cusp at 278 and looks a good 5-6 inches taller. The kid who wrestled him in the first round was just a huge meatball of a boy, he had to be right at 285. I don't want to be mean, my fat ass is walking around at 390, but this kid was a big round fella. He threw his weight around, and although he wasn't particularly athletic, he seemed to know how to use his weight and just fell on top of our son and beat him fairly quickly.
The other kid was about the same size as our kid and the match was pretty even, it could have been won by either boy, but just as Baby A had gotten an advantage on points at the start of the second period, he gave him a good shot to the face and the match had to be stopped for a nosebleed. Our boy has our weak nose and occasionally gets nosebleeds. This took all the momentum out of him and when the match resumed, it seemed like our boy wasn't himself. He was fighting with a plug in one nostril, which can't help, and he was then beat a second time, this time on points, not a pin.
After the small sort of round robin, the rest of the kids were ranked and fought to find out who the four highest ranking kids in each group were, unfortunately, Mijo was not in that group. It was still a good season in that he won a handful of matches, he lost a couple. I know he learned a lot and he learned a new sport we would never have had the chance to have been a part of. He said at one point he might even like wrestling even more than football because he wins and looses on his merits, there is no blaming teammates on the result. I feel that he will take his lessons and grow for next year.
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