Last night was a lot of fun, watching the Coogs go out and have their last Quad Meet (four schools facing each other off). I was a little saddened that our own heavy, Baby A could not participate, Wife and I still showed up, provided snacks and drinks, and cheered for the other, really for all the kids fighting. I have to say, it takes guts to go out and do something like that, which seems so out of the ordinary. The main focus in high school sports is basketball right now, but there is soccer going on too, and wrestling. We could extrapolate and look at other activities, band is in the middle of their individual competitions now, as well, so I guess there are all sorts of activities that these kids get to participate in, and that's a good thing.
Surprisingly, when we have gone to big competitions, our Crockett program seemed small, we had a hard time filling all 14 weight classes for boys and 10 for girls. There seemed to be a lot of time wasted qualifying and doing the proper paperwork and other logistical stuff, consequently, we would show up with 4-5 boys on the varsity team, and a handful of girls. Last night, we were the big-time program, Crockett had a whole side of boys and girls, I think everyone that has been on freshman through varsity dressed out and showed up. Not every weight class was represented, but in the end, there were a few exhibition matches between Crockett teammates. LBJ had maybe 4-5 total wrestlers, Navarro, who hosted had at most 8 total wrestlers, and Travis had maybe 3-4 wrestlers. I don't know if a lot of kids have quit or did not participate because of grades, but Travis had a lot more wrestlers last time we met with them. Crockett, as a team, looked very good. It is easy to see that a lot of wrestlers have improved over the last few months.
I have to say, I told Mijo that last night was a lot of fun, mostly because he wasn't fighting. I love watching him compete, but as a parent, I am always holding my breath that he won't get hurt. It is also hard to watch him lose, but he keeps saying he might be upset in the moment, if he is beat, but he is also okay with it and doesn't hold a grudge, he knows there are kids with superior skills, and he just enjoys the challenge of competition.
The team was more or less upbeat, I would say the Coogs won about 80% of their matches, so we looked very good overall. Certainly, our kids have been taught to be gracious winners and losers. In the first match, one of our freshman kids, who has become very friendly with us, he is one of Mijo's buddies, beat a Navarro kid and the other kid refused to shake hands after, as is custom. The referee forced him to shake, but as they passed each other afterwards, our Coog tried to say, "good match", and the other kid was rude and dismissive about it. I like our son's attitude, if he loses, he will go out and talk to the other guy, congratulate him, and try to pick up pointers on whatever move was done on him. That is the sign of a good competitor.
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