Nate's First Wrestling Meet

Nate had his first wrestling meet on Sunday. Neither of us really had a clue what to do or where to go. The meet was in Dexter and there were about 30+ people from Nate's team there.

The team has these down to an art form with everyone on the team signing up for food and doing a mini-pot-luck at the event. At the beginning of tournament, each wrestler gets their list of bouts and then waits for their time to wrestle. You can with either win a pin or with points over the course of 3 1 1/2 minute rounds. Each wrestler gets to wrestle at least twice, and more based on how you do. It turns out that one of Nate's coaches went to school with Cathie in Lansing. Steve Potter ended up coaching Nate through a couple of his matches.

Nate had the normal "first time" butterflies. His first match, he lost by one point and then got ready for his second match. He had to wrestle a girl in his next round, which is a tough way to go for any guy. It's really a lose/lose situation. If you win, you get the "yeah, but you beat a girl" line from other guys. If you lose, you get the "You got beat by a girl?" stuff. One of the guys on Nate's team was able to easily top Nate's story when he explained that he had to wrestle a one armed girl. I watched as one kid went out to his match against a girl, turned around and refused to wrestle her, forfeiting his bout.

Nate won his second match against the girl, pinning her at the beginning of the second round. He won his third match and then wrestled for fourth place. He lost the match by two points, which his coach believed were given in error. Against all of Nate's opponents, he did great and really could have won the two he lost very easily. Nate took fourth place in his group and was disappointed he didn't do better.

It was a long day, getting out of there after 3. Nate's been enjoying wrestling and it's a good experience for him - learning to go head-to-head with another person.