Our buddy Grant is in his third year of wrestling. He started as a four year old in Nursery School. We figured that as much as he liked to rough-house it would be good if he knew what he was doing so we signed him up for wrestling, not having a clue what was ahead of us…

So, his first year went like this: I brought him to practice, he cried (bawled) through warmups, once they started to wrestle he was ok but totally didn’t listen and just rolled around. We repeated this weekly. We didn’t put him in any tournaments because we figured if he couldn’t make it through practice that tourneys would be a disaster.

Year 2 as a 5 year old in pre-k started better! He made it through practices without crying and even had some interest in the instructions they gave! We figured why not try out a tournament. His first tournament in Grantsburg was a little rough. He wrestled hard for half of each match then… his eyes would meet mine… they would well up with tears… and he would CRY!! They don’t stop for crying so needless to say, he lost. Every match. But he got 4th out of 4 and the participation medal he received might have saved his wrestling career! He was proud. We brought him to another tournament in Turtle Lake. He lost and cried through his first two matches. The last match of the day we KNEW he could win. The poor kid he was about to wrestle was terrible and clearly new to the sport. Grant went into the match ready! He was wrestling like a champ, scoring points, and doing an awesome job. And then… he started to get tired… his eyes met mine and he started to cry!!! The poor kid wrestling him had no idea what to do so his coach told him to keep wrestling. The kid would approach Grant and Grant would scream, “NOOOO!” So the kid would step away. This scenario repeated itself a few times- time was up- Grant won! We ended that season with a 3rd place because he traumatized the kid! And Grant was proud…

Year 3- kindergarten- 6 years old… Grant can now put a guy in a half-Nelson and pin. He is doing well in practice. The goal this year was simple: no crying! We did the Grantsburg tournament and he was in a bracket of five kids. He got 5th but he NEVER CRIED and wrestled so hard! Grant is 49/50 lbs. which has him wrestling bigger kids than him so that was hard there but he was tough and was excited! Nick took Grant and Abe to Clear Lake where Grant got second! He lost his first match to a much bigger kid. He won the second one and the last kid forfeited. Grant was pretty proud as he thought his toughness probably scared the kid! Ha!

We’ll see where the next tournament takes us…