Championships

[Onthehoof]

We are in the weeks of the Utah State High School state wrestling tournament. Covid has turned the tournament into a two week event to lower the capacity numbers and keep the classifications apart. This is my favorite sport to spectate! I think wrestling is an all time great sport that is way too underrated. How many wrestlers do we have in the MM world?

 

[MuleyFreak72]

I have been a big wrestling fan over the years. I wrestled for 10 yrs, and was able to coach a group of wrestlers for about 8 yrs. I enjoyed chasing my son around the country wrestling for another 8+ yrs! I’ve always had a passion for the sport... I always said there’s those that can wrestle, and some just don’t cut it.. so there’s tennis, golf, and other sports they might enjoy! Lol ? A lot has changed in the sport over the years, hydration test, etc. never had that growing up in the sport. Best wishes to your son, what weight class is he in?

 

[Homer]

I was always too skinny, weak, and lazy to wrestle in high school but my best friend was a champion.......this was 40 years ago....I am pretty sure he never would have passed a hydration test for 3 days before weigh in....they were brutal.

 

[elkhunterUT]

Love wrestling - I wrestled from the age of 8 all through high school. It is the best foundational sport there is in my opinion. It teaches mental toughness and ability to "embrace the suck" better than anything else I can think of. No one else to blame when you lose either - it is just you and the other guy and the best man usually always wins.

I firmly believe my wrestling days have helped me get through some pretty brutal things in my life, including some miserable hunts and pack outs with serious weight on my back.

 

[bonepicker]

Wrestling was my favorite sport in High School! I was never a champion (except in my mommy's eyes haha!) but I won more than I lost, it was a blast! I've had a bunch of fun watching my boys wrestle the last few years. Last year and this year really messed up the seasons though in my state.
It is a great sport for individual character building.

 

[Bluehair]

My youngest was a 4 time state qualifier with 2 podiums. Both my boys wrestled so counting pee wee’s, I spent 15 years sitting on gym bleachers. Good times; we miss it.

 

[coloradoman]

Yep
Started at 5 and wrestled through high school collegiately. Did ok.
Started Greco Roman at 14 and went to nationals in Des Moines Iowa at 17 to try and qualify for the junior Olympics. Day one I had 3 matches and won all 3.
Day 2 had 4 matches won 3.
Day 3 had 6 matches won the first 5 and had to win the the last to go but by then my @ss was kicked and I lost that match so I missed it by 1 match!!
Got to meet and got tips from Mark Schultz.

 

[BacDoc]

By far my favorite sport, both as spectator and participant. Had the good fortune to wrestle until I was 25. Even better got to follow 3 sons careers including 11 state tournaments.I really miss those days. Haven’t missed many state tournaments over the years, but I guess this will be one. Enjoy watching college wrestling on the Big ten channel for my fix this year. Good luck to all involved. Bac Doc

 

[Gator]

Start age 6 stopped at age 38 and started coaching Jumior high and high school kids, collegiate, then Freestyle and Greco, wrestling season run for mid Oct to June with coaching all 3 styles. I stopped that in 2010 and turned to the dark side and Ref for 7 years. LOL
IF we have a season out here it will be in April or May I think.

 

[eelgrass]

I was never officially a wrestler but my senior year in high school my gym teacher was the wrestling coach. For some sadistic reason he decided we, as a class, would conduct wrestling matches. Everyone in the class was going to participate in 10 matches. I hated the thought. It just seemed creepy to me. I wasn't really into touching guys..lol, but I had no choice.

Needless to say I didn't put much effort into it and lost my first match to some weenie armed guy. I was very humiliated and embarrassed. So much so that I vowed to never lose again. I won the next 9 matches, the last one against a guy much bigger than me who had lettered in wrestling. I pinned him in the second round.

That was my last wrestling match ever and never had the desire to do it again.

 

[Servehim]

Loved wrestling, 6 minutes on the mat was tougher than any other sport i competed in. I weighed @150 in high school and had to cut to 126 to garner a spot on our team ....couldn't beat the state champ holding the 132 weight class on my team. Man did I ever learn to enjoy an orange in those days, no hydration test allowed.

 

[Bluehair]

Start age 6 stopped at age 38 and started coaching Jumior high and high school kids, collegiate, then Freestyle and Greco, wrestling season run for mid Oct to June with coaching all 3 styles. I stopped that in 2010 and turned to the dark side and Ref for 7 years. LOL
IF we have a season out here it will be in April or May I think.

Our HS boys are wrestling now. It’s a shortened season (I think) with only 2 kids per region going to state (usually 4).

The matches are online here. In person attendance is severely restricted. No parents; only 2 spectators per team I believe (?) or something silly like that.

I’m not complaining cause Im glad we still have any HS sports at all.

 

[Onthehoof]

I have been a big wrestling fan over the years. I wrestled for 10 yrs, and was able to coach a group of wrestlers for about 8 yrs. I enjoyed chasing my son around the country wrestling for another 8+ yrs! I’ve always had a passion for the sport... I always said there’s those that can wrestle, and some just don’t cut it.. so there’s tennis, golf, and other sports they might enjoy! Lol ? A lot has changed in the sport over the years, hydration test, etc. never had that growing up in the sport. Best wishes to your son, what weight class is he in?

Thank you! I actually am getting to coach my nephew this year. He is a freshman at 182 and is having a good year! The more I am around the sport the more I am drawn to it. As a spectator it is amazing to watch the passion and will to win. As a coach it is so awesome to see how much a wrestler can develop, even when the odds are stacked against them. As a wrestler the satisfaction of sweet victory after weeks of literal blood sweat and tears cannot be duplicated. Yes, I think wrestling is THE sport and the rest are merely to pass the time.

Thanks for all the comments! I can relate to many of the things you all said.

For all of you that have not experienced wrestling, check it out! It is amazing for all involved.

 

[easy_money]

I was always too skinny, weak, and lazy to wrestle in high school but my best friend was a champion.......this was 40 years ago....I am pretty sure he never would have passed a hydration test for 3 days before weigh in....they were brutal.

Everyone else was way too sweaty and stinky for me to want to wrestle with a bunch of dudes. A lot of body contact there.

My granddaughter is on the high school basketball and volleyball teams and they won't let them play because of COVID. How in heck can it be OK for wrestlers to rub each others sweaty bodies all over each other and be literally face to face?

 

[DW]

My cousins son became the 195 state champ in Georgia yesterday.

 

[Gator]

Awesome Those upper weights has some studs.

 

[boomer]

I was never really into wrestling when I was younger and through high school. After graduating college I became a teacher and when I was in my first couple of years I had a student that was missing a lot of class, so I asked him what was up? I found out that he was traveling to wrestling tournaments and was ranked second in the nation. I ended up following his career as he got better and better. He ended up winning 4 state championships (Ohio) and a couple individual collegiate national championships. I gained a real appreciation for the technique and endurance involved. Wrestling is probably like a lot of other things, you have to understand the little things to truly appreciate how difficult it is.