Wrestle Mania

Connor just finished his first season of Wrestling. Mike wrestled in high school & always really enjoyed it, so we wanted to see if any of his "skills" had been passed on to Connor. We've seen some pretty "awesome moves" in the home-grown wrestling matches between our three boys, so we asked him if he would be interested in signing up & he said yes. Here's his official picture for the season. He looks so skinny...which he is...but he looks REALLY skinny in this unitard thing they make them wear...

Which brings up a burning question of mine...Why would any guy WILLINGLY dress in one of those things & then stick his head in another guy's armpit?!? But whatever...

Connor struggled a little at first which did not make the perfectionist in him very happy. Generally, if Connor can't do something PERFECTLY the first time he tries it, he doesn't want to give it another chance. Wrestling was different though. He didn't give up! He wanted to get better & he was willing to practice to get there! He & Mike spent many nights moving furniture out of the way so Mike could teach him a new move or so they could go over what the coach had taught them in practice. Connor didn't even complain when the coach would make them do about 100 push-ups every practice. Seriously...he made them do HUNDREDS of push-ups every practice to help get them stronger...and Connor didn't whine once! That was a miracle!

Anyway, about a week ago, Connor had his final wrestling tournament. He did so great! He won several of his matches & had a good attitude on the couple he lost too. He wrestled a kid who was REALLY good. He's been wrestling for about 5 years & his dad is a wrestling coach at one of the local high schools. This kid was pinning his opponents within 30 seconds of the match beginning. But, Connor ended up lasting probably 1 1/2 to 2 minutes before he was pinned! The other kid's dad (the high school wrestling coach) even came up to Connor afterwards to congratulate him on lasting so long & told him he was going to be a really good wrestler someday.

Here's a few pictures I attempted to take of one of Connor's matches. He ended up winning this match. He didn't pin the kid, but he ended up getting more points than the other boy, so he won. As you can see, I'm not a very good picture taker when it comes to sporing events. I tend to be more focused on the match rather than on whether or not my subjects are centered in the picture...

After that, my camera battery died & I didn't have the other one with me...so that's all I've got. Oh well! Anyway, I'm very proud of Connor & his good attitude that he had throughout the season. I think wrestling now ranks up there by baseball in his eyes now!

We have the rest of the month of December off & then we start up Junior Jazz Basketball in January! Should be fun! --Lindsay