Do you ever get involved in something, casually, that at some point you realize is probably going to take over your life?
We did this with lacrosse. When we first caved in and let Spencer try lacrosse it was really as a way to keep him quiet. We were baseball people. He was a catcher. We didn't *do* lacrosse...
and now we are up to our eyeballs in sticks and heads and small rubber balls. We plan weekends and vacations around game schedules. We are looking at flying half the family to a sleep away camp in June. We serve as coach and schedule coordinator and vice president of the board. We have a line item in our budget just for lacrosse...
And now (I fear) we've done it again. With wrestling.
We got the little boys involved in jiu jitsu, as I've mentioned, over the summer to help keep them busy and teach them some stuff. Never did we dream they would love it as much as they do. And I admit we failed to see, until recently, how the jiu jitsu is very likely going to bleed into wrestling.
I think we realized that the little guys might have the potential to be pretty good wrestlers because we've watched Spencer fall in love with the sport this winter. And THAT was unexpected! Spencer has always wrestled because it made him a better football player. Period. He didn't wrestle for the sake of wrestling.
Until this year...
West Forsyth got a new wrestling coach this year. And he's awesome. And he loves Spencer. And Spencer loves him. And I think this is going to be one of those coach/pupil relationships that causes great sadness when it's over, but serves to help build a really great man in the process.
Spencer found himself in a somewhat unexpected (OK, VERY unexpected) situation this year when he was named a starting varsity wrestler as a Freshman. We really didn't see this coming... and were totally unprepared! I'm so very proud that he was willing to step onto that mat knowing the chances were good he would be outmatched, because that's what his team needed him to do.
He learned a TON this year. And he now has his sights on being a great wrestler. He's focused on this sport for the sake of the sport, not just for the conditioning. Very interesting. Who knows what will happen when football season rolls around. Maybe he will decide his first love is still between the end zones. Maybe not...
Maybe he will commit himself fully to helping build a stellar wrestling program at West. Because this team is poised to be something special! They are at the state dual tournament this weekend. They overachieved to get there. They probably won't do very well at the tournament this year, but BOY what great experience and preparation for next year! What a fun team to be around! It's so very cool to see kids enjoying a sport without a bunch of pressure and expectation. Refreshing!
(And I say that even knowing that wrestling is likely to take over our lives in the coming years!)
Here's a picture of the high school wrestling team this year. I'm betting there are 50% more kids in next year's picture. (Spencer is the last one on the right hand side in the back in the grey singlet.)
Have a great week!
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