Friday, December 7, 2018

First Middle School Wrestling Meet: Culpeper

I was nervous about our first meet. Culpeper is traditionally a large program with good kids and it feels like an 'off' year for me. I had something like 25 kids come to the interest meeting, 18 different kids tried a practice, but only 11 have stuck with it (and I'm missing a few who really enjoyed it last year I was planning on being my experienced kids). I had two kids with big hair that needed hair covers that hadn't arrived, as well. I went to the store late Thursday and bought a bunch of different things hoping the refs would approve of something.

So yeah, I was a little nervous.  

I showed up at the middle school and only 7 of my 11 kids were ready to go. One was sick, one had a family event, another had gotten suspended, and the suspended wrestler's cousin had gone home early with him.

An inauspicious start to what was a great night. 

Culpeper had a ton of kids as advertised. We forfeited a ton of weight classes and never had a chance on the team score.


However, the other coach (who was new) was happy to schedule exhibition matches. Each of my boys got three matches! Two boys won all three. Three boys won two out of three. The last two boys each got a win each.

I was ecstatic.

One of my boys who got one win had only been to three practices before he got to wrestler three matches. The other is a second year wrestler who's real strong but awkward. He joined halfway through last year, so I wouldn't call him a real veteran. It was his first win and his mom had driven out to see it.


We went to McDonald's in Madison on the way back to celebrate (both the match and me helping the bus driver not to get lost on the way to AND the way back...but that's another story).

Twas a good night! The boys all had a good time and entered the weekend on an emotional high note.

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