Hey Ref!. . He's stalling! . .

It's that time of the year again . . . when the high school wrestling season winds down to the final District Tournament to determine who goes on to the State Championship. Our boys are long since out of that arena, but Dale and I still enjoy watching and cheering the kids from the Grove on every year. Some of our best friendships were formed during those years that the kids wrestled, and I miss that part alot. We still like helping out at the tournaments and always look forward to watching kids we know participate in the state tournament, which is the last weekend in February in the Memorial Coliseum. This year FG has the potential to send at least 6 wrestlers to the state meet if they perform well at the Canby districts. It's not an easy sport for some people to watch or even like for that matter. I guess, I hear it all the time: "How can you watch that, it's gross", "Wrestling is gay", "Why would guys want to do that?", "Wrestlers ears look stupid", "They are always dieting", "He's way too skinny", etc. etc. etc. That's only a sampling of the negative comments from non-wrestling athletes, non athlete students and even from some other coaches. I guess until you become part of the wrestling culture or family as I call it, you just don't understand. I have also heard these comments from first-time wrestlers, long-time wrestlers and alumni wrestlers: "It's the hardest thing I have ever done", "It's the best conditioning program I have ever been in, way better than football", "I made great friends through wrestling", "I've never been this disciplined before", "I pinned him and I've never pinned him, it was sweet", "He won't go out for wrestling because he doesn't want to work that hard". Wrestling gets a bad rap, mostly because a few coaches have made stupid choices in how their wrestlers cut weight. For some reason people think high school & college wrestling is comparative to WWF, WFC or whatever it's called now . . NOT! Unfortunately, like everything only the bad gets all the press and the coaches/wrestlers making good choices, working hard and playing by the rules are not news worthy, and that's unfortunate.

So here's to another great season and good luck to our team as they head to the state qualifier. You have a fan, actually 2 but I only have one of them pictured in his mini singlet (although they could very well choose to be basketball players! heaven forbid . . ha!) GO VIKS!!

P.S. Favorite quotes to yell at the tournament to distract the referee: "Hey . . he's stalling Ref!", "He's locking hands!", "What's he doing? He's not doing anything!", "Hey, sit down coach!", "He's fleeing the mat, look at him Ref!", "that's an illegal move!", "He's pinned! Hey Ref he's pinned!", "Where's his back points?" and our all time favorite "I think he has ring worm, is that ring worm Ref?"