Wrestling

My little guy had his first wrestling tournament this weekend. This is our first foray into the wrestling world which is very very big here next to hockey in the midwest. They start most of these kids out at the preschool age. Its amazing to watch the little guys going at it.

Here is out it works. You show up between 8 and 9 to do sign in and weigh in's. Then you go sit while the kids go to the mat and warm up. At 10:00 or so they do announcements and start the staging process. Preschoolers first, kindergarten next and so on, up to 8th grade I believe. By 1230pm they called the 3rd graders for pairing. they pair the kids with their same age/weight group and have them sit together and wait for their turn. They get up and wrestle 3 matches. Winner gets trophy others get medals. After the match they take them to award room , take picture and send them on their way. Luckily, dad walked with him to award room and took a picture for me to scrap. Poor guy didn't know what to expect and got mauled on his first match. The kids he went up against were very experienced already and knew what to do. Where as Zach only has had 7 practices so far. He was pretty upset after the first one. So here I'm thinking it may be his last. :) He was a trooper though and in his second match he was able to fight his way and escape a few times to at least score some points. He still didn't win but he stepped it up and went back for more. We couldn't be more proud of him for sticking with it and with the heart he showed, he gave it his all. He ended up with a 4th place medal. He seemed pleased with it, but, he is out for a trophy now I think. There is another tournament this coming saturday in town. At least after I sign him in, I can come home and wait for his turn and go back and watch. haha.