My son's Wrestling season...

[bushido_man96]

On Feb 11, '17, we went to the Ellsworth County Kids Open. It was a small tournament, and both the boys only had two matches in their brackets.

Kendall went 2-0, wrestling a first year gal from our club, who he beat by tech fall at the beginning of the second period. The second match was against a kid we hadn't wrestled yet, which was a good thing, but Kendall pinned him in the first period after a quick takedown. I didn't get to see the first period of the first match because Kenneth was wrestling his first match.

Kenneth was in the 70 lb bracket, and had a 67 lber and a 73 lber in the bracket. His first match was against the 73 lber, and Kenneth pretty much got picked up and slammed, and then spent the rest of his time in the first trying to avoid the pin. He did so in the first, but got pinned in the second. His last match was against a pretty inexperienced 67 lber, and Kenneth took him down and pinned him.

It was a small tournament, and a short day, which was ok. Kendall took first, and Kenneth took second.

The next week we took off, and we will be heading to Salina this coming Sunday for 6U State for Kenneth, and Elementary Duels for Kendall.

[sensei8]

Sounds like they both did well in that tournament. Hats off to them both!! Next week's tournaments should go without a hitch, and I believe that they'll both do well there also.

Are you and/or their coach working with them both on how to engage with a bigger [weight, height, etc.] opponent?? If I may ask, how much does Kenneth weigh??

[bushido_man96]

Kenneth is weighing in right around 69 lbs, and is wrestling the 70 lb division, so he's only giving up weight when they combine. I've worked with him on trying to stay low with his hips, and on trying to keep his hips squared, and not falling on his hip when he is.

With Kendall, its been about staying behind the hips and behind the elbows when he is working from the top position. When he reaches "over the top," he starts to get himself into trouble, and when he gets his hips out to the side, he doesn't have good pressure on them, and they start to get up. He's been working on that in practices.

These next tournaments are all going to be tough ones. 6 and Under State for Kenneth will be a challenge. Kendall will be entering the Elementary Duals, which is a pretty special tournament. Elementary Duals consists of kids from 1st grade up to 6th grade, with no age divisions, only weight divisions. So Kendall's bracket will likely consist of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders weighing 140 lbs. I doubt there will be many kids that heavy that are younger, but if there are, they will all be placed in the same bracket. They will place back to 8th place to establish alternates, and what they do is take 6 teams to Iowa for a national competition in which the boys who qualify will represent Team Kansas at a National Duals tournament in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Top 6 qualify, but they take two alternates. Those who make he team get a custom Team Kansas singlet. So, we decided we would try this tournament this year and next since it is the last two years he will be eligible, and it will provide him with some tough competition as we build up towards his actual goal, placing higher in the State tournament this year.

[bushido_man96]

Ok, another few tournaments have come and gone, so time for a brief update.

At 6U State, Kenneth went 2-2, and got 3rd place, which I was really proud of. There were a couple of kids there that were really good, and he got beat pretty quickly by them. The other two he wrestled well against, and got one pin and one win by decision.

Kendall had a tough task ahead of him with the Elementary Duals. He went 0-2 unfortunately, wrestling some very big kids that were 6th graders. These kids appeared to be young adolescents, not kids, and it showed. But Kendall got to see what "the next level" of competition looked like, and I think he realizes what to do to get there. We will head back next year and give it another shot.

This past weekend, we had our club's tournament here in Hays. Kenneth went 1-2, but unfortunately didn't win enough to place. He was pretty upset by this, but he wrestled really well. We have to clean up some things on his body positioning, especially when finishing moves, and we will try to do that over the summer.

Kendall's bracket went all kinds of different ways. He had a bye to open with, and then faced an opponent that he has beaten three times, but struggled with each time, and this kid has kept getting better and better. This time the opponent got the advantage, and beat Kendall 5-1. He took a bad shot and didn't get his head out to the side like he needed to, and so didn't have anywhere to go with it and got buried underneath. From there he couldn't regain control, and struggled throughout. This week in practice he has a few things to focus on. His next match was against a girl from our club that he handled well, winning by tech fall, and his final match he won with a pin in the second period against a kid we hadn't seen all year. Kendall ended up placing third, which I told him to be proud of.

The finals match for the division was the kid that beat Kendall and another that Kendall had wrestled and beaten earlier in the year. The match ended up going to the other kid, which was won in sudden victory. You just never know how its going to work out in wrestling.

Now, with the regular season out of the way, Kenneth's season is over, and Kendall is preparing for the state run. This coming weekend is sub-districts in Phillipsburg, then hopefully districts in Garden City, and then hopefully State in Topeka.

[bushido_man96]

Ok, the run to State has begun. Subdistrict championships were held in Phillipsburg this past weekend, 3/11. Initially, the setup was a three-man round-robin, but one of the kids scratched due to illness and a funeral, so Kendall only wrestled one match, and fittingly enough, against the kid who beat him the previous week at our local tournament. Kendall went out, changed some tactics, and wrestled very smart, and got the win, and almost had a pin.

Now, we head to Garden City for Districts, which is going to be a 4-man round-robin, which means that barring injury, he will qualify for state. The only thing to be decided is the scedeing, which will be flushed out based on the records, head-to-head match-ups, and pins that take place in Garden. Updates will follow soon thereafter!

[sensei8]

Excellent mat work, Kendall at Phillipsburg!! A win is a win, and a loss is a loss, no matter how many times on the mat!!

Good luck at Garden City!! It'll be fine at District!!

Btw, I'm having major VIDEO withdrawals!! Hint hint hint!!

[bushido_man96]

Thank you, Bob! Districts went well this past weekend. Kendall wrestled three matches, and won all three by pins. In the third match, he did a very rough duck-under that he got a takedown with. It was good to see it, but its obvious that it needs a little work. In his second match, against our challenging opponent this year, he managed another throw via headlock, and worked it into a pin.

So, it was a good week, and he had a good night of practice on Monday evening, as well. He goes into the state tournament as a #1 facing off with a #4. We leave Friday to get to weigh-ins, wrestle Saturday, and if things go right, wrestle on Sunday, too.

[sensei8]

Major congrats to Kendall for a dominate series of wins...he's a beast!!

Good luck to him at State, not that he'll need it, imho!!

Thanks for the updates, Brian!!

Did you VIDEO anything this season??

[bushido_man96]

Bob, yes, I've got videos of everything. Just not on my phone for easy download. I've got a camera with SD cards we are storing everything on.

The State tournament went very well for Kendall! And day one, he won his first two matches, both by pins. The second match was against someone he'd wrestled earlier in the season and pinned, and he pinned him again in the second period. This win put him into the semifinals, and it also guaranteed that he would at least place again this year. That was a huge accomplishment, as he had never accomplished that on day one.

So, match three comes up, and he goes up against a really big, pretty physically mature, kid. Really tall and really strong. Kendall ended up losing this one, getting pinned in the first period. I think he tried to go for a throw too soon, instead of trying to lock up and wrestle a bit. But this kid was good, and he ended up taking 2nd place. So, day one is over, and its to the back side of the bracket.

Day two starts, and Kendall has a really long wait before he wrestles. The benefit of losing your first match in the semifinals is that you end up quite a ways ahead on the back side of the bracket. He had to wait for two rounds on the back side to be finished before he knew who his opponent was. And, as fate would have it, he got pitted against the same kid from his district that he had beaten two times before, lost to in Hays, then beat in subs, and the beat him with a pin at districts. The kid had learned since then, and he was not going to be thrown again. But Kendall went out and wrestled a really clean match, and got points off escapes and reversals, and ended up winning the match 5-0.

With this win, Kendall sealed the deal on his goal this year; go back to state and place higher. That win put him into the 3rd/4th place match. I was so very jacked up after he won that match, and so was he. The kid he was going to get paired up with looked like a pretty solid kid, and appeared to know what he was doing with tying up and getting control of his opponents, so I was expecting a tough match. But, it was all gravy then, because he had met his goal, but now wanted just a little bit more.

So, after the 5th/6th place matches were finished, there was a break in the action to reset the mats and tables for the finals. They did a really cool thing they call the parade of champions, where the 5th/6th placers get to parade in, and then come shake hands with their opponents, then they bring in the 3rd/4th place matches to shake hands with their opponents, dismiss them, then bring in those wrestling in the championship matches, who get to be introduced by name and club, and meet and shake hands with their opponents, as well. Kendall got to be a part of it, so it was really cool for him. With all that fanfare out of the way, it was sit and wait for his match. They set it up so that the 3rd/4th place matches were on one side of the floor, and the 1st/2nd place matches were across from them on the other. They started at the lowest weight class and went up from there. But each one had a full mat, which is really nice for the competitors. Well, Kendall went out for his last match, and I was ready for a really drawn out challenge. But Kendall had a different plan. His plan was win it now, and he did just that! After some circling with this kid, who outweighed him by every bit of 10 lbs, Kendall moved in, put the headlock on him, threw him to the mat, and pinned him before time ran out in the first period! We were both so excited, he placed 3rd in the state tournament! He came off the mat, found me, and boy did we have a celebration! He did such a good job, and worked hard all season long, practicing usually 3 times a week, and usually multiple practices on the days he went, and it all paid off for him.

It was a long two days, but a great weekend, and worth every minute spent there. As for his district rival, he ended up placing 6th, in his first year at the state tournament. He is also the only victory Kendall had that he didn't pin. And the two have become pretty good friends throughout the season. His parents are great people, and I enjoyed chatting with them during the season, too. And his coach is a guy I went to high school with, and is a great guy, as well.

So, this just about sums up the season. We are planning on hitting a tournament in Nebraska this weekend, too, so I will post results afterwards.

[bushido_man96]

Ok, another update, probably the last tournament this season.

Midwest Classic Nationals, in Kearney NE this past weekend, 4/1/17.

So, this is a national tournament, pulling kids from several different states, and was a two-day event. On Saturday, the kids wrestled, and on Sunday, the high schoolers wrestled. I guess on day two, its a pretty big deal, as a lot of the Big Ten coaches will come scout the high school kids. It was a fun tournament to go to. Also, since it was a national tournament, they awarded All-American status back to 8th place, which Kendall made his goal. He had a 16 man bracket with a few byes, but he didn't get one of them.

Kendall weighed in at 140 lbs, and the weight class he wrestled in was different from our Kansas one, and ranged from 125-160 lbs, which in KS the 160 lbers would have been a weight class above him. The wrestlers could also double-bracket if they chose to, and I think we had one do it, as Kendall's first match was against a kid weighting only 116 lbs. I figured this kid to be pretty athletic, and he moved around really well. He didn't want to tie up with Kendall, but Kendall locked him in, headlocked him, and pinned him in the first. Next match was against a heavyweight he wrestled earlier in the year, and it was more of the same: headlock, pin in the first. Third match was against a kid that looked like a really solid wrestler, and heavier than Kendall, too. Coaches and I also got onto him for the headlocks, but he said they were there, and he took them. Coaches said he wasn't likely going to get away with it again, but it probably paid off well for him. It was a bunch of kids he'd never seen before, and all they had seen of him so far was two headlocks. So by winning the first two matches, he guaranteed himself to place at least 6th, which was fantastic. Third match, he took a shot, which he doubled off and finished well, and then covered and pinned that kid! So, this put him in the finals, which was so exciting!

Now, with that accomplished, something different. This tournament had a "true second" match, in which if the third place winner had not been beaten by the second place finisher, the two would wrestle off for 2nd and 3rd place.

Kendall went into the finals match against a really good wrestler that didn't want to tie up. For some reason, Kendall felt the need to rush him late in the first period, and he got caught and pinned. So now, upset about that, his next opponent was against a kid we are familiar with that was in the finals at KS State in the heavyweight division. They squared off, and Kendall finished the match on his feet, going all 3 periods, but losing 5-0, and finishing in 3rd place.

He was a bit upset with the turn of events, but we talked about it, and how he ended up placing 3rd in a national event and achieving All-American status wasn't too bad a weekend after all. When it was all said and done, he was proud of his achievements, but felt he could have done better. I wouldn't have it any other way.