Triumphant (?) Return

Cale got back on the mat this weekend.  Big weekend for me, I spend a lot of time with Conor's wrestling career because of his success and sometimes I think that Cale feels a little slighted.  Cale has given up other sports to concentrate on wrestling (another topic altogether), Conor still plays football and baseball, both of which I coach him in.  Conor goes on a lot of out of state trips for wrestling, Cale doesn't attend them much.  Cale can still knock the stuffing out of his younger brother on the mat (he thinks, I think, maybe...) but Con gets all the attention.  Yada, yada, yada...it's complicated.  I'm looking forward to seeing him get back to action this weekend and spending some time with him, sans Conor.

Blue "Heaven" Mountain

May 7:  About half way through our two hour drive, the sun was up and the sky was beautiful.  As I rolled down 78 and the tree covered bluffs sped by, I looked at my son asleep in the passenger seat.  We had shared many of these trips over the years and I realized things were about to change.  Next year he would enter high school and most of these trips he would take without me, on a bus with his coach and teammates.  I would be in the stands, of course, but it would all be different.  The natural course of events was upon us

Taking the easy way out...

On a side note, while I was at Conor's freestyle tournament, I kept a close eye on the Junior 171 weight class.  This is the age and weight that Cale will be competing at, he is classified a first year "Junior" as he turned 16 in September.  Conor is a "Schoolboy" although he competed as a "Cadet" at the tournament.  Cale last wrestled at about 150 in the preseason this year.  After his knee surgery he has put on about 15 pounds or so.

Swimming in the deep end...

This past weekend Conor competed in his first freestyle competition.  He has practiced the style before, but this is the first year he has had time to actually enter some competitions on weekends.  Although this tournament was a big one for freestyle, it is still offseason so the competitors are limited.  In order to get some matches in Con wrestles up an age group, which may help him a bit as he prepares for varsity competition next year.

He gets to the mat for his first match and sees his first opponent.  "Oh crap, he's jacked," Conor mumbles as he slips up the straps on his red singlet.  Not sure if "crap" was the exact word that came out of his mouth or not.  After a few meager words of encouragement, I pat him on the rear and send him out to earn his fate.

Update on "semantics"

Conor's baseball commitments are not as great this year.  He is a baseball "14" which is an in between year for Legion ball.  His Legion prep team of last year has reformed as an AAU team, which requires far less of a commitment.  He also does inhouse, but at his age, his inhouse team may only have a couple of practices for the entire year and most of the kids will only show up to 60% to 80% of the games.  So baseball-wise, this is FAR less of a commitment than has been required of him in the past.

So last week, he tells me that he wants to start going to wrestling practice with his older brother. 

A matter of semantics...

Giving up control of your son's athletic careers can be easier said than done.  When they are younger, some times they need a LITTLE push.  Kids don't always do or learn what's in their best interest until later.  Some times parents really do know what's best (but a lot of times the kids know even better, but I'm not sure you learn that until it's too late).

I lost control of Cale's athletic career when he started eighth grade.  Note the word usage, "lost."  Actually, I lost my vise-like, death-grip on his whole being about that time. 

What do I do now????

Wrestling season is over.  It went out with a bang, February and March are great months.  Middle school championships (Conor won for the 2nd year in a row).  Next week high school "sectionals" and junior high regional tournament (Conor finished first again).  High school "districts" the next week.  Regionals and PJW (Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling) sectional qualifier the weekend after (Conor finishes 2nd to a pretty good high school varsity wrestler in a close match and qualifies for areas).  Then comes the big weekend.  Thursday to Saturday - PIAA States in Hershey.  As good as it gets, both from a wrestling perspective and a great time had by me and the kids with all our high school families who go year after year.  This year, we get a bonus - NCAAs are in Philadelphia.  The boys and I get lucky ticket wise and we end up at all the sessions except the Thursday day session.  Awesome experience.

Wrestling Parents are CRAZY,

...but when was the last time you checked out the stands at an 11 year old travel baseball game???

I have spent a lot of time in youth sports, both as a coach of three sports - football, wrestling, baseball - and sitting in the stands spectating.  In my younger days, I always thought that wrestling parents were the craziest.  This was probably fueled by my experiences seeing fathers pounding the mat like crazed zombies during their kids matches, moms screaming at referees before, during and especially after their kids matches, the occasional "scruff hold walk of shame" endured by some 10 year old kids after a tough loss, the occasional melee breaking out in the stands of a tournament, etc., etc. etc.  But after many years I've come to the conclusion that most of the parents are really good people, despite the borderline psychotic/illegal behavior they may exhibit in your local gym, and that, on the whole, baseball parents are a lot worse.

A tale of two wrestlers

Most of the time when you have two or more brothers wrestling, they tend to be of like abilities.  Or at least in the same ballpark.  Same with any sport really, you have a great football player on your high school team, the coaches can't wait to get the younger brother on the team.  The Philadelphia Eagles draft Casey Matthews in hopes of getting their next (and probably first under Andy Reid) All-Pro linebacker.  That's the way it usually works.  Usually...

A little background and a story....

I'm actually back dating this post because it should be first in order to give you a little bit of background info.  I have 3 children, 2 boys and 1 girl, that are all involved in wrestling.  I'll call them Cale, Conor and Julie to protect the innocent.  My two boys are wrestlers and my daughter was a wrestler for a short, but eventful week when she was 10.  I still call her involved because she loves to travel to the tournaments and meets with us.