My son's Wrestling season...

[sensei8]

YAHOO!! Congrats to Kenneth for making it to state tournament; he’ll do great!! Sounds to me Kenneth has his head screwed on right now because he believes that he can fix that issue. That’s the mind of a great fighter!!

Hang in there and please convey my deepest support to Kenneth; he’ll do whatever he needs to do. He’ll do great!!

[bushido_man96]

Back from the state tournament.  On day one we found out just how tough a tournament this was going to be (which it always is).  The number one seed was a great big grown man...looked like he had a mortgage.  He won the 6A high school state championship...in the heavyweight division...and he showed here to wrestle 215.  Also in the bracket was the 3-2-1A state champ at 215.  Kenneth had wrestled him once this year.  He was a senior, but a more normal sized individual; I could see Kenneth growing into something like that in two years.  Kid was a great kid, too.

First match up, Kenneth was undersized compared to this kid.  He was big; not as big as the 1 seed, but big and quick and strong.  Kenneth ran with this kid all three periods, but lost 15-4.  He did a great job hanging with this opponent, and the kid couldn't pin him.  And as long as you don't get pinned, anything can happen.  First round loss sent him to backside.

In his second match up, he was again facing another opponent taller than him.  He's been seeing this theme over the past two years, though, and I tell him he has to slay giants.  I've seen him develop his mental approach to the point that this doesn't bother him anymore.  He just expects to be smaller than the others, so he doesn't care.  The first period was spent on their feet jockeying for position and ended scoreless.  Kenneth chose bottom to start the second period.  He did a Peterson roll to get the reversal, kept pressure on, and the opponent based his legs out.  Kenneth set a suicide cradle and won with a pin to advance.

Third match up was against a previous opponent.  This kid lives is a senior who lives in the same town as us but goes to the public school.  We've known him for years from our affiliation with the wrestling club before this new one he's in started up.  Good kid, too.  Kenneth was 0-2 against him this year, counting a week ago as his only loss in districts.  First period did not go well; Kenneth was holding him off for most of the period but got taken down and turned at the end of the period.  It looked like he going to get pinned, but he held on just long enough to get saved by the bell.  He was down 11-1 to end the first period.  I can't remember who had choice, but neutral was chosen.  Then wrestling happened.  The opponent started running at Kenneth, and Kenneth was able to use the momentum to throw him over straight to his back!  After a few counts of nearfall, it was a pin.  That win allowed him to make it to day 2.  After the match the opponent came over and was chatting with Kenneth, and was just such a good sport about the whole thing.

Day 2, first match up.  I'm always super nervous for this match.  Win and move on, lose and go home.  We had watched the opponent, and he had a very good and very technical headlock he threw.  He wasn't a great big kid, right around Kenneth's size, but definitely older.  They tied up and the opponent got to double underhooks really quick.  He cinched Kenneth up and tried to step in and take him over, but Kenneth countered with his own throw and took to his back for 3 points.  He didn't have something quite locked in, because the opponent was able to squirm out of the nearfall.  Kenneth said later he lost an arm and that was the kicker.  Kenneth tried to bring his back to the mat, but he bellied out and they got to front headlock position.  Kenneth defended a takedown counter and they went out of bounds.  They reset and the opponent worked an escaped  For period 2, Kenneth had choice and chose neutral.  He tried to work to double underhooks but couldn't get them set.  They jockeyed a bit more, but the headlock came, hard and fast, and that was it.  A tough loss that ended the tournament for him.  I was encouraged, though; he did wrestle with this opponent very well.

Kenneth had a teammate that was in the finals, so we stuck around because Kenneth wanted to support him and help coach him.  I got to see the finals matches for the 215 bracket.  The 3-2-1A state champ won the championship against the 6A heavyweight champ in impressive fashion.  He controlled his opponent throughout, fighting for a couple of very tough single-leg takedowns.  It was a great match.  The first opponent Kenneth lost to ended up placing 3rd, and the second opponent he lost to ended up placing 6th.  I think there are some positives to take away from that.  I was super proud of him.  He fought his rear-end off, and didn't give up, and he never lets himself think he can't win a match anymore.

The good news is going forward is that a freestyle/Greco club will be meeting for a few hours on Sunday afternoons, and he's looking to continue at least with practices, which is great.  Spring wrestling makes winter champions.  The freestyle/Greco state tournament is held at the same place as folkstyle, too, in May.  Who knows?  Maybe we'll come back and give that a go.