Wrestling

Jordan just finished his first season of wrestling.  I admit that I was not excited about this when his football coach (who is, of course, also the wrestling coach) gave all of us football parents his Wrestling is Amazing speech.  My first thought:   "Wrestling?  Ew."

But Jordan wanted to give it a try.  

I walked into the wrestling room at my old high school and nearly gagged from the smell.  Sweat galore.  Ew.  Gross.  But, Jordan wanted to give it a try.  So...

Here's a picture from one of his first practices.  This one makes me smile because he's come so far and is so much better than he was back then.  I still thought wrestling was pretty stupid at this point. 

Practices went on and soon it was time for the first tournament.  Before the tournaments, wrestlers have to weigh in.  Did I mention that the only thing I knew about wrestling was from watching Saved by the Bell?  We went to the weigh in.  It was total chaos and we didn't know what to do.  But we figured it out.  

The tournament was the next day.  Here's Jordan ready to go.  Notice his weight on his arm... 75.6 pounds.  He's since put on over 5 pounds of muscle.  Woah. 

He didn't win his first match that day.  He got pinned, in fact, but he did win some matches and he placed 4th.  Here's a picture of the first match he ever won. 

Something happened to me during this match.  I watched my sweet little baby wrestle his heart out and I became a crazy wresting mom.

No one can believe it.  In fact, neither can I, but I'm a wrestling fan.  I love it.  I even have a shirt to prove it.  And yes, I wear it with pride!

Someone asked me if I ever thought I would be so excited about my son wrestling.  My answer?  "Not in a million years!"

Anyway.

Jordan really began to love wrestling, too.  Maybe the fact that I love wrestling stemmed from watching him find something he really loves.  That must be it, right?  Ha!

We kept going to tournaments.  He wanted to go to every tournament, in fact.  Even those that his team didn't attend.  The bad thing is that beginners tournaments are on Sundays.  Chris works on Sundays.  But we made it happen.  This is Jordan and his friend Connor.

They've played football together for two years.  Connor and his parents are lifesavers.  They shuttled Jordan to tournaments for us so that he could make weigh ins when Chris and I had to stay later at church. We kept each other company during those loooong tournaments.  (They last hours and hours...it always seemed like we were the last ones finished!) We're so thankful for them!

Here are some more pictures from this season.

 I love this one with my dad in the background.  

Photo Credit:  Amber Cloy Photography

Photo Credit:  Amber Cloy Photography 

Now, most of Jordan's football buddies dropped out of wrestling during the season.  I can't blame them, really.  Wrestling is tough.  The practices are tough.  Way tougher than football.  When Jordan decided he wanted to go to the state qualifier tournament, he moved up from the beginners practice to the advanced practice.  And it was so hard.  Hard for him.  Hard for me to watch.  I couldn't watch it, in fact, so I stopped going.  It was so hard for me to see my child suffering through those workouts.  And believe me, they all were suffering.

Since Jordan is a first year wrestler, he wasn't the best in this advanced group.  He got the crap beaten out of him twice a week and kept coming back for more.  After the first (and only) advanced practice I stayed to watch, I asked him if he still wanted to do it.  His reply? "Yes.  I just want to wrestle".  Okay, then.  He's grown up a lot this season.  Last year, he wouldn't have been ready for this. Jordan isn't one to stay motivated when something is hard, so the fact that he stuck it out when the going got tough testifies to how much he really loves it. 

I came in at the end  of one practice to see the team praying together.  This made my eyes water a little bit.  

So, Jordan worked really hard all season and never gave up.  That's how we found ourselves driving to Gilmer County before the sun came up to make it to the State Qualifier in time.  This was a hard tournament.  Jordan was pinned in his first match.  He was really upset  but after he sat by himself for awhile he said, "I'm going to be a better wrestler after this tournament".  And he was right.  He placed 3rd at his first State Qualifier and made it to state.

State was an amazing experience.  Very overwhelming.  
Here's Jordan in front of the Georgia Dome.  Such an accomplishment.

He was pinned his first match and then wrestled really well the second match.  He was losing and then tied it up at the very last second. 

He lost in overtime.  And he cried.  I did too, a little.  But he wants to go back next year.  All in all, he did exceptionally well for his first year of wrestling and we couldn't be more proud of him.  

Of course, Shaun came to support him.  They may fight like crazy, but they're each other's biggest fans.

On the way home, but check out that hoodie!

We had a week off and now another wrestling season has started-  Freestyle/Greco.  Again, I have no idea what that means except that, according to Jordan, you can't go for the legs.  I really think I need a copy of Wrestling for Dummies.