The start of wrestling season finally happened this past Friday and it was an exciting explosive event full of ups and downs for the Coogs who returned with a mostly brand new team and coaching staff. Last year, because of Covid, the team was decimated and consisted of about 3 guys and 3 girls, but one of the boys disappeared early in the season, so it was mostly Baby A as a new recruit and the experienced senior who did manage to go to the state tournament. This season, there are about 45 kids total, so the energy level is completely different as a whole crew of kids is hanging around to support each other. I love that our boy was able to recruit a couple of his friends, so we even know a handful of other boys now and even more were coming over and talking with us as we acted as the team parents, sitting with them and offering them moral support and plenty of snacks.
The Capitol Classic is a yearly tournament as some of the people were talking about it and there were something like forty school participating. Wife saw names from as far away as Uvalde and as intriguing as the School for the Deaf participating. I only wish there was more separation between football and wrestling season, some of the kids are still healing from broken bones suffered in football and they are trying to heal to go at it for wrestling, which in many cases is more violent than football, and many people think football is excessive.
As I walked in Friday afternoon, I saw Mijo's close friend on mat 2 finishing his match with a win as the other guy took him down, but they rolled over and somehow our guy ended up on top and got the pin. How much more exciting can it be than walking in to action like that. It was so packed in the gym, which had three rings that it seemed like half the kids were just standing around. It took a minute to find my boy, but he was walking around supporting his teammates, it was still the JV kids going, so our son hadn't even started. This made me feel better that Wife wouldn't miss Mijo's fights, but it also meant we were there for a long night, and man, was it.
Wrestling is different from football in that one can win or lose during these tournaments, they don't affect ranking for district, that all happens during that particular set of meets, starting in February. There is a long way to go before then and the team is going to need to get as much experience as possible.
Speaking of experience, Baby A went 2-2, he won two matches and lost 2 matches. He got most excited for his first loss, to a big boy that looked very much like an experienced warrior. He did a weird pinning of his arms, when Mijo tried going under into his armpits to try and knock him down. He clenched his arms tight and locked in our son, then he tumbled backwards and our boy just tumbled along with him and before he know it, he was on his back and it was over. As soon as the ref, lifted the other guys hand, it was funny, our son was talking to the wrestler like a close friend, "Hey, show me how you did that move!" They were still on the mat instead of moving on, and the other kid was friendly enough and showed him what he did, it was cool to see the respect and exchange of knowledge like that. He then had him on the side amongst the crowds of kids talking about it and doing it a couple more times. I don't think our son cared that he lost, he was excited about the chance to learn a new move. His first match , which was his first win was won by points and could have gone either way, the kid was experienced and I am sure we had seen him last year at the district meet. It is weird how in the six minutes they wrestle, 3 rounds of 2 minutes each, they can exert themselves so hard and leave themselves barely with enough strength to get up.
The guy that pinned him with the weird move came in 2nd place, and the other guy that beat him, was also by points and that match could have gone either way, Mijo made a bold move towards the end of the match to try and make something happen and get a point and the other guy took advantage and flipped him down when he lost his balance. This kid fought for third place, but lost. I fully believe our son belonged up there, in the top 5 in his weight class. I don't know the exact count, but with forty schools there, there were at least 20 boys in his weight class, I would have thought, it was so confusing to follow.
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