The boys welcomed me the same way they always did (several of them even inquired as to whether I'd brought treats. I promised them some next week.) Some of them sat and visited with me for a while. Jake B. really misses Cody. In fact, I took a pad of paper with me and he wrote Cody a full page letter in between matches. Apparently Cody's legacy lives on among the wrestlers because many of them said he's their inspiration.
Be that as it may, this team is a bit of a contradiction. They have more talent than probably the last three year's teams combined (excepting just a few individuals of course) but they lack discipline. And they're not in very good shape. Even their good wrestlers seem to run out of gas halfway through the second period. Interestingly the new assistant coach (who I met and chatted with for the first time tonight) is a cross country coach and he said he's going to start making the boys to long tempo-runs before practice. I told him that would improve their cardio fitness faster than anything else. I like Coach Snell, he seems to have the kind of focus and intensity that this team really needs.
Anyway, the boys have a week off before the Madison Invitational. I'll be manning one of the scorer's tables, so I'll have more updates then. Until then, here are a few pictures for mom & dad.
Tad is wrestling 119 & 125 (depending on the night) and he did pretty good. He pinned one guy & beat another on points. Not bad for a freshman.
Jake Wade was sick & Rick has other issues, so they were helping Tavin & Keith Wilson at the table.
Jake was up on points in this match, but ran out of gas in the 3rd & ended up losing 11-8. He was disappointed, but we had a long talk about it and he knows what he needs to do. (Yeah. Like I'm a coach. I'm not. I'm just an overbearing big sister who reminded him how good he can be when he gets out of his head and just wrestles because he loves it. He gave me a big hug before he left, so something must have stuck.)
Ty beat both of his guys fairly easily. I really think he'll place pretty high at state this year. He's already got more than 20 wins this season.
OH! And Nick was the highlight of my night! He's cut 30 lbs, he's wrestling 160's this year. Most of the guys are still taller than he is, but he is doing so much better at this weight!
It took him all of 30 seconds take this guy down and pin him. It was awesome!(And for those who are confused, Nick goes to Skyline, he's a friend of the family though so I went over to watch his matches.)
4 comments:
Oh.. Thanks for thinking of us and putting up pictures!! Gosh...... They made me so homesick for wrestling!! Good thing I talked to Julene today and she told me it was -18 when she left for work without the windchill, or I be trying to figure out a way to get up there for the MIT next weekend!
Also..I know this is a lot to put on you, but you can be a good influence on those boys each time you go and watch them and talk to them (aka use your big sister phsychology on them). You will also be a good reminder of the kind of wrestlers they want to be, because everytime they see you they will think of your brother.
I want to go! And Huzzah for Ty and Nick. Tell them all I said Hi.
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