There is no denying that we absolutely fell in love with the sport of wrestling in this house, just from the passion that Mijo had and the intensity he involved himself with it. He had been telling us and everybody around him that his goal was to make it to state, ever since he came a step short a year ago, technically qualifying for regionals as an alternate, but also not being able to compete further in that position. Last year, he went 12-11, an honorable record, and to note, the best one on the team, along with his girlfriend, who is the female team captain, so they both went back and forth as to who is the better wrestler, pound for pound.
This season started a tad rough, the football team made it to the playoffs, so it was an extra week that took him off schedule, they couldn't get involved with wrestling until football ended, so the first tournament came, and they were honestly not ready. Adding to that, Mijo was still nursing a high ankle sprain which was in its fifth week of healing, and I can gladly say, it did not really seem to bother him down the schedule, but it did make us nervous that he would re-injure himself for coming on the mat too soon. He was also sharing the heavyweight spot with his friend, week in and week out, which was good for helping him take it easy, but I also wanted him to claim those easy wins, to improve his record down the line. For example, in the Georgetown Meet, he gave two very easy wins to his buddy so that he would get some wrestling experience, but only after evaluating that the heavyweights for those other schools looked like new kids. In all, he gave away 3-4 easy wins, but still walked into the last tournament at 18-6, if I remember correctly.
His best tournament before the holidays was the one at Bryan, Texas. It is a huge tourney, and they were ready with a warehouse building set up with 20 mats. There was wrestling all day, the week before breaking for the holidays. On one end, the boys' varsity team was fighting on maybe 4 mats, then the varsity girls, for probably 4 mats, then the JV boys and girls, and they even had a rookie division to break them down even more. Mijo did very well, placing 3rd in the varsity division 2 category, with 15 other wrestlers. His friend came in third in the JV heavyweight category, and the freshman linemen they talked into joining also got 3rd in the rookie division, also as a heavyweight. These were the best of times, even if the extra-long days were murder on our bodies, I wouldn't have missed any of it for anything.
There were some shitty tournaments, I can't lie, the one in San Antonio was a shit show, most all the wrestlers were out after two matches, which was rare for Mijo to go in and lose two and out right away, most tournaments are double elimination, but he told us he was in the midst of a cold, possibly Covid. Anyways, the end of the season came too fast and not fast enough. Part of me wishes this could go on indefinitely, but that is the beauty of life, even the best things come to an end.
To Be Con't.
