This past weekend, my son Marco competed in the NY State Youth Wrestling Championships as a 50lb. bantam. This is an event which you need to qualify for. Because he placed 1st in the County Qualifier, States was next. Â There were 15 competitors, seemed that most were local but a few were from as far as Brockport. Marco started strong, pinning his first opponent in 1:39. His second match was a lot tougher and Marco suffered his first pin ever in a competition, in 2:39. Before this, Marco lost only two matches in his entire career. The first loss was in his first tournament ever last year. The second was a few weeks ago when we wrestled him up one weight class at 55lbs.
The guy who beat Marco was a fantastic wrestler and went on to win the competition. Losing this match was pretty demoralizing for Marco. He was very upset and wanted to quit the tournament. Nothing I could say would change his mind. It was at this time, alone in the locker room, where I left him to think things over. After a little while, my brother Tom came to sit with him and talk to him about when he was a young wrestler. I don’t know exactly what Tom said, but Marco came out of the locker room ready to wrestle.
Tournaments are double-elimination. If you lose, you move over to the back side of the brackets and compete in wrestle-backs. The best you can do here is get 3rd as the 1st and 2nd place winners go to the finals undefeated. In the wrestle-backs, as they call them, Marco dominated and beat all of his opponents, 4 in a row. In total, Marco wrestled 6 times to achieve a bronze metal in the NY State Championship! I could not be more proud than to see him get knocked down and come back up like that. Here is the video of the entire event:
There are more tournaments in the post-season, some are at the national level. We know we’ll be going to at least one of these and hope to do a few in nearby states or NJ/PA. Also, my son Antonio has joined the wrestling team! I’m glad he’ll get some practice in this Spring and summer before the 2011/2012 season next winter. Go Antonio!
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