The Regional tournament was at a high school just outside of Harrisonburg. Audible kept me entertained yet again.
Due to horse chores, I arrived post weigh-ins. The initial mood was sour. Remember Wrestler #2 from Districts? He qualified, but then no-showed for practice Friday. Supposedly, he had to drive his sister home and then his mom needed the car. However, he communicated zero of this. I'm trying to remember if he arrived late to Regionals, but the main thing I remember was the sheer annoyance radiating off Brian and Wrestler #2 seeming to be oblivious to it.
The highlight of the day was our 103's match. First, he concocted a theory: The brighter colors the wrestler's shoes the more likely they were to win.
His shoes were black and he knew it.
The scoreboard malfunctioned during his match. Brian and Rico were ready to go to war, but the results would not have changed. Our 103 weighed 85 lbs and didn't even start until halfway through the season.
Which was how the day went. We had four wrestlers qualify (103, 165, 190, 285) and we didn't win a match. Zero points put us in dead last.
But we had to do it. In wrestling and in life, you show up and you finish. I was relieved when it was over. We'd stayed the course. We finished without quitting.
Mostly. The inaugural Girls' State Wrestling two weeks away and we have a contender. She's likely to do better than the boys, but not if she takes two weeks off!
The highlight of the tournament was talking to the Charlottesville people. Tony's son, Andrew, was one of my old wrestlers and supposed to drop by to say hi. CHS had two wrestler I knew well who placed.
Xavi was on my middle school team. Now, he was a senior. He took 2nd in the region and 5th at states!
Walter trained with us last year as an 8th grader. His parents switched him to CHS, because their team was much more advanced than ours. As a freshman, he took 2nd in the region. He got injured before and during States, but still managed to finish 6th. If he stays healthy, he's got a shot at being a champion next year.
I made sure to watch all the CHS matches I could, but I didn't stick around to watch the finals....and I'm glad I didn't. The tournament wasn't the best run and it went on past 9 PM! The head CHS coach, David, loves to post on Facebook, so I spammed refresh from the comfort of my home while I recovered from the season.
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