District Championship (Q4!)

Districts started with weight drama. We had two seniors who wanted to wrestle at the same weight class.

The first was a brand new wrestler who was faithful, worked his butt off, and improved immensely throughout the year. He wanted to wrestle up a weight class, because his weight class was stacked with talent.

The second was a more seasoned wrestler, but he only showed up to practice half the time. He was naturally at the weight class. We wanted to have a wrestle off the day before districts, but he was a no show. In my mind, that's a forfeit.

This put Coach Williams in a pickle. 

Should the first wrestler, who was better to the team, wrestle at the weight class best for him? If so, the second wrestler wouldn't wrestle and his parents (divorced) were both coming to watch him.

On the other hand, if the first wrestler went to his natural weight class both boys would get to wrestle. The team wouldn't have to forfeit and there was always the chance they could both win a match. There are only three teams in our district, so one win was all it took to move forward.

Honestly, the situation sucked. It was going to be rough either way. I thought we should go with the hard lesson and opt for option A. I wanted to extend mercy and hope for a miracle, but it was a repeated pattern for wrestler 2. 

It was Coach Williams call in the end as the head coach. He had the wrestlers talk it out, and (of course) Wrestler 1 said he'd wrestle in the tough bracket so that Wrestler 2 could compete. 

Which is exactly what I knew would happen when Coach Williams said he'd let the boys talk. The best thing that came out of decision is it allowed Wrestler 1 to demonstrate the character I knew he had. It may sting in the short run, but God looks at the whole picture. If there's a greater gain from the present pain, He'll work it out for the best.

And I got ice cream.

I forget why Carrie and Shane stopped by. It was probably an orthodontist appointment. I can't remember if they came by the school or if I met them at Wegmans, but I got a treat out of the encounter.

Wrestler 1 went up against a beast and was ankle picked off the whistle. Unfortunately, his season ended after both matches.

I have the clip here, because the Fluvanna wrestler's mom saw me videotaping. She approached me after the team matched and asked if I could send it to her. She had missed the beginning of the match. I was annoyed that she'd ask for footage of my guy getting beat up. Especially after I felt like he was wronged in the whole weight class debacle.

But I cut the gif of the ankle pic and sent it to her. 

I couldn't fault a mom for caring about her kid. I couldn't fault their family for wanting to celebrate all the work their wrestler put in, either. It was a sick ankle pick. 

Amidst all the motivational talks and pumping up a coach does through the night, Jordan Burroughs posted something exceptional.

I won't post it here, but if you're looking for an ambassador for the sport, follow Burroughs on social media. He went to the University of Nebraska (a family favorite) and must have majored in Communications or English, because he writes very well. 

Districts ended late. Most of our wrestlers were eliminated. We had a few who go to move on to Regionals which I will be writing about on Saturday.