Wrestlings of Yesteryear

It used to be that I had two sons that wrestled.  I didn't know anything about the sport, but I studied up on it and eventually came to enjoy the intensity of the matches.  But, alas, no more.  I found this old journal entry from last year when I took a younger son to an older son's wrestling match.

December 6, 2015

I took Sam with me to Josh’s wrestling tournament on Saturday. He was extremely upset that he has to spend the afternoon with me at a tournament than with his friends at home. He was in tears. It was more than he could bear. But once we left and he realized he was going to be with me regardless, he calmed down. Also, we also stopped at the gas for a drink and king-sized candy bars. He didn’t complain the rest of the trip.

He had a lot of questions to ask about the tournament, like how one “wins” or how a team “wins” and stuff like that. I think the format was very confusing to him since there’s no true champion. That said, Josh did pretty good. He’s wrestling JV and, this won’t surprise you, believes he is better than the Varsity wrestler in his weight class. So, he thinks it is beneath him to wrestle JV. But he went to the tournament this Saturday and Sam and I showed up for his first match just in time. He pinned the guy in the second period. Josh is tall and skinny and I think most wrestlers think they are going to dominate him and are pretty surprised when that doesn’t happen. After that match, Sam and I went to go find food. Josh requested a chili cheese dog from Sonic. I couldn’t find a nearby Sonic, but we found a local restaurant with a really messy version of a chili cheese dog. When we got back Josh couldn’t eat it because he was just about to wrestle again. Unfortunately, he lost his second match by a point. Josh thought he was tied at the end of the third period so he wasn’t trying any moves during the last 30 seconds thinking they were headed into overtime. It came back to haunt him. Anyway, since Josh doesn’t think he belongs on JV, it ticked him off pretty good. And it didn’t affect his appetite - he crushed the chili cheese dog, as Spencer L. would say. That’s not something I would eat in the middle of a wrestling tournament, but I know Josh is a little different in that respect. So, he finally got to his third and final match of the day and came out like a bull. He looked so different from his second match that even Sam noticed it. Josh won 5-0. Afterwards Sam leaned over to me and said: “What was it that Josh ate again?” Apparently the chili cheese dog is to Josh what spinach is to Popeye.