There were a few firsts with winter sports at our house this year. Jonah and Micah played Jamboree Basketball for their first time, and they were glad they did because they both liked it! They practiced twice a week for 6 weeks with about 25 other boys their age. The last week of practice, they played scrimmages with each other and the boys really liked that part.
Kanyon tried wrestling for the first time this year, too. Some of his friends joined the sport as well, which he was glad for so that during practices he could wrestle with his buddies. It was a fairly short season, only about 5 weeks, and he had practices twice a week. There were only 3 practices before his first meet, though, and he wasn't quite ready for the fierce competition! The first meet was Saturday March 8 in Darby. It was a huge meet with a lot of teams from Montana squeezing into a small gym, but it was very well organized.
He was a good defensive wrestler, though, and he stayed strong both physically and mentally in his first matches. He had two matches at the first meet, both of which he lost, but he never got pinned and Josh and I were so proud of the way he fought hard and handled himself.
Here's a video of one of the matches at his first meet:
We had left home early that morning (about 7am) to get to that first meet in Darby Montana by 9:00am. After being up early and wrestling so hard that day, it took its toll on Kanyon, and he slept almost the whole way home!
He even slept through a stop we had to make on the highway for an avalanche clean-up!
The following Saturday, we had to leave at 5:30am to make it to the meet in Victor Montana for weigh-in at 8:30. This time, the meet wasn't as large, and the gym was bigger, but it wasn't organized as well as the previous week. Kanyon had two matches again in the 55 weight category. He was able to score more points and lessen the gap between what his opponents scored and himself. He never got pinned at this meet, but he was unable to win any of the matches. Josh and I were so impressed with his defensive wrestling abilities and we were so proud of him for his good sportsmanship and for remaining so calm.
The next tournament he was in was a week and a half later during Spring Break week at the end of March. This time, the meet was in Salmon on Wednesday evening the 26th (the night after we got home from our spring vacation) against the Challis Idaho team. Josh and I were unable to go because we were in Idaho Falls at the temple with our friend Amanda as she went through for the first time. So, Grandpa Tolman took Kanyon to the meet and Ammon, Jonah, and Micah went to watch and support him, too. The kids from Challis are extremely competitive wrestlers, and unfortunately, Kanyon got pinned for the first time that night. It really upset him, and he said he didn't want to do wrestling anymore after that. So even though there were two more practices and one more meet after that, he didn't go to any more of them.
Josh and I both think that Kanyon has some potential to be a great wrestler. I don't know if he'll do it again next year or not, but I'm proud of him for trying a new sport and putting his whole effort into being the best he could be at it!
No comments:
Post a Comment