Off Topic, Busy Weekend - Whew!

What I thought would be a fun easy going weekend turned into a pretty hectic one (but still fun) so I am totally unprepared for today's post. My laptop is a little buggy so I don't have any scans to make an impromptu post. I'll just relay my weekend. I knew it would be busy with two wrestling tournaments in two states, one on Saturday and one on Sunday but man, I forgot how long those days can be. If you don't like wrestling (middle school/high school style, not WWE) this may not interest you at all. Bragging dad coming up, bail out now if you need to!

My older son is an 8th grader and joined a travel wrestling team that has gone to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland to wrestle this winter to seek out some better competition. He also participates on the local club team when time allows. Just trying to get him as much mat time as possible before he starts high school in the fall.

My younger son is a 6th grader and part of the local club. He was a pretty reluctant wrestler but is actually quite good as well. He didn't enjoy the immediate success his brother did but has developed a different, more defensive style of wrestling that works for him. I call it the "Little Brother Style" because as a second born myself, I remember constantly having to defend myself from my older brother when he learned a new move. The more successful he's been, the more he's coming around to actually enjoying it.

We live in Virginia but on Saturday, we made the two hour trek up to Shippensburg, PA for a tournament that most of my older son's travel team was attending. Because it was an open tournament as opposed to a team dual meet, my younger son tagged along and particpated too. My older son had a fairly easy route to the finals where he was matched up against a kid to whom he had lost just a couple weeks prior. It had been a close match that he felt he could have won so he was anxiously optimistic about a rematch. This match was close as well, complete with a scoring controversy and everything, but my son prevailed and won his first individual tournament. He was excited to avenge the previous loss, earned a trophy (rather than the standard medal) and if you know anything about wrestling, the winner gets to take home a posterboard version of the bracket for his weight class.

My younger son lost his first match (mostly jitters for his first interstate tournament) but battled back to pick up a third place trophy for his age and weight division. There's something to be said for earning a trophy in a sport like wrestling, where you go one on one against opponents your own general size. I think he was just as excited with his third place trophy as my other son was with his first place winnings.

On Sunday, we stayed in Virginia, but went about two hours in the other direction for a tournament in the "local" club league. Usually my sons have meets on Sundays and my wife will take one and I'll take the other but this was one of those rare weekends we could double dip and do two tournaments.

My younger son again lost a close first match by points but battled back and won his last two, one with a pin and the other by points. This tournament uses a round robin system rather than brackets so he earned second place this time.

Wrestling's version of the slaughter rule dictates the match stops when one wrestler is winning by 15 or more points, called a technical fall. My older son "teched" his first kid 15-0. He was beating the second kid 10-0 when he pinned him. And he "teched" the third kid 17-2.

So, not a bad weekend in the Major household. There are some big post-season tournaments coming up before we move on to spirng little league so getting this extra mat time has some advantages. If I have some time later, I'll try to add some videos for those interested.

Hopefully, back to regularly scheduled Cubs talk tomorrow, although I am extremely disappointed that the Cubs DFA'd Tony Campana! Blurg!