The season has finally come to an end and although it is sad to see the end of something, it was about time. I have honestly loved watching Baby A and the rest of the team compete, win or lose, but the whole structure of wrestling leaves very little to be enjoyed in between, for the spectator parents. First off, I was worried all season we would see our boy injured in some freak way, although there are no punches or kicks allowed, it is still a very violent and vicious sport. It was a rare weekend of wrestling that he didn't leak a little blood from somewhere. Honestly, between a bleeding nose (multiple times), to a busted lip, busted inner mouth, scratches on his arm or the last one, a bleeding knee from simply rubbing on the mats so much, this sport seems to demand a gallon of sweat and a pint of blood from each of its participants. Last week, at the District Meet, a kid was knocked out for longer than a minute, he must have been thrown on the mat too hard, he was out. The referees, then the trainers were rubbing on his back, gently, to try and wake him, even when he got up, it took a coach on either side to carry him off on wobbly spaghetti legs. Secondly, the wake-up times are crazy, for one meet in Bryan Texas, we had to be there by 6:30am, so we got up at 3:00am. Thirdly, because there are so many weight classes, it can take hours between the one match your kid is in, so there isn't much to do but sit and nap or eat. In most of the meets, we got to sit with the kids, so at least we could listen in and be a part of their goofiness, the girls love teasing Mijo and telling us about how he is a "bully" and for us to get after him, but for District and Regionals, we were separated from the wrestlers. My final complaint is how careful they are to keep the wrestlers in the lower classes equal by having the weight classes be less than 10 pounds difference (lightest class is 106 to 113= 7 pounds difference), but then the heavyweights get a range from 220 to 285= 65 pounds difference, which is huge and pretty obvious when our son weighs 240 and is up against kids weighing near 285 who he can't even get his arms around. But adding more weight classes would only add to the length of the day, I say combine the first few weight classes to reduce the number and then split the heavier weights, they say Americans are getting bigger.
I do not enjoy seeing our boy coming down the stairs barely able to walk, for a couple of days after each meet, but it was becoming the norm, so the season ending is just a way for the beatings to end, he was such a fan that he would continue taking the abuse. I personally felt the season was about as long as it needed to be. He got up this morning at 5:00am, still went through the routine of getting ready, meaning no food, and putting on his singlet, for the last time this season. We showed up as requested, at 6:30am, and then waited for the weigh-in procedure. He was an alternate, meaning he would have to wait until today to see if he would even fight. It could have happened if one of the wrestlers did not make weight, was sick or injured. All the heavies were accounted for, so he was not needed after all.
He still had an enjoyable day, he has been the captain all season, so he still got to go out and warm them up and cheer them on, as a group. He even got to be a "towel tapper" for a short while, which we thought was funny, since he had rejected the idea of doing it. The towel tappers are the kids assigned to come and hit the refs on the back when the clock reads zero, since the refs are not supposed to look away from the action of the two fighters. Usually, a towel is wrapped with tape to look like a pool noodle, and this used to tap the refs, hence the name "towel tappers".
It was a little rough for us getting up with him at 5:00am, then heading to the gym and because we didn't know what would happen, we were kind of stuck there. We waited in the car for about 20 minutes then walked up to wait for the doors to open. we got the same seats as last week, up at the top against the wall and got comfortable. Somehow or other, time flies and before we knew it, it was 11:00am. Since Mijo was not fighting, for the first time all season, he started wondering about food. We tried going out to get the team burgers, but were initially told no, because they didn't want us leaving to get food when we should be spending our money on the concession stands. The two ladies at the concession stands said they did not have a full staff to make burgers and run a hot kitchen, the lady there said thy could shut down the gate to the concessions while they made burgers, it just seemed like a difficult task, then they announced that we could go get food from the outside. By then it was noon, we left to get some Wendy's burgers for everyone on the team, Mijo said all the food was eaten except for a couple of fries. At that point, we chose to go home, we stopped to eat, then went home to nap. We went back at 5:00pm to pick up Mijo, and that was about it. A couple of girls are still in the hunt for a State Finals position, but I don't think we will be getting up super early to go see. I want my weekends back, to sleep and do some work around the house. I hadn't had the energy to even vacuum or sweep the last month or two, it will be nice to get back to normal.
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