Wrestling Season Begins

It has begun again!

Not that it ever starts easy. I was sick. Shane was sick. I didn't know where the buses were dropping off. The buses were late.....it never starts smoothly no matter how hard I try.

Shane:
Shane woke up at 6:20 AM saying, "I'm sick." I woke up, felt his forehead and told him, "Too bad. You're going school. Go back to bed." He had a cold. I had a cold. No fever, no missing school.

Carrie was more sympathetic. She thought his tonsils looked too swollen and kept him home to visit the doctor. The doctor said, "Cold," but Shane's temperature also rose into the 100s. That did allow me to stay at practice and not worry about picking him up, though.

Me:
My bug grew over the weekend. I opted out of my allergy shot thanks to congestion. It didn't really hit my voice until today. "You sound sick," was one of the first things a student said to me. Great for coaching right? My temperature was 99.6 when I started to write this (not bad, but higher for me). I hope I didn't pass my cold on to anyone in the room.

Buses:
I wanted to meet the wrestlers at the door today. Most are new and don't know their way around the HS. I asked the front desk and the attendance desk people where the activity buses dropped off. Both told me they were "90% sure" it was the front entrance.

Guess what?

It wasn't.

I did pick up two random wrestlers. A mom dropped one off and the other rode the wrong bus, but the bus driver had to report to the HS anyway. A couple veterans found their way to the room while I was out front and then the rest of them showed up when I heard the other bus was late and went out front.

I showed up after practice had started and everyone was there. Somehow, the bus the boys had been on (which wasn't the color bus I was told it would be) had dropped them off in two different places and neither where I was standing.

But they got there. We're par for the course. I expected the bus to be a pain in my ass and it didn't disappoint.

Practice:
Went well! I had about 10 kids show up! Some of them even handled themselves like athletes! Coach D was pumped and yelling, so he went to it and I played support.

It was great to see several old faces. One kid showed up who was never officially on my team, but had practiced with us. Another who was on the team at the beginning of last year, but spoke no English and quit. Finally, there was one senior who would have been our captain last year, but he took the season off to focus on soccer. He must have missed wrestling, because he was back! None of the other kids were on his skill level, so I rolled around with him some (but only after he was good and tired). He actually caught Coach D by surprise during a demo.

It was a good day. About half of my middle schoolers stayed after the 5:00 PM quit time, too.