Tag: life

Last weekend, Marco wrestled in a regional/national tournament called the Ohio Tournament of Champions. This was by far the biggest and most difficult tournament that we’ve ever been to. Marco wrestled so well, finishing 2-2. Trophies are awarded to places 1-6 and 7th place winners get their name on the website results section. Marco finished in a 5-way tie for 9th place. Considering that there were a monstrous 40 kids in his bracket, clearly he did an awesome job.

I took two days off work for the trip, driving up on Thursday. It took about 11 hours with frequent stops, ideally it’s a 9.6 hour drive according to Google.

Friday, we went to Goodale Park and the science center, COSI. Both were a lot of fun. Around 4, we brought Marco to the convention center to be weighed in. It was a zoo. The weigh-in wasn’t a big deal, but the line to get the bracket printouts took almost an hour! Marco was initially over 50lbs by 0.2 lbs, but we had him pee and he was fine after that. Once we did all that, we left for the Spaghetti Warehouse and had a nice pasta meal. We all ate like lions, Marco put away an enormous amount of food, too, which I was glad to see.

Overall, I was really, really impressed with Columbus as a city. It had a city feel, but it was simpler. It was clean, hip, and full of life. Ohio State was an immense school; regal and dignified. The football stadium was an absolute marvel. I’ve always said that kids should go away to college if they can and seeing awesomeness like the Ohio state campus re-affirms my belief.

The next morning was competition time. We went to Bob Evans for breakfast and had a solid meal that would take us through the tournament and into a late lunch/early dinner. We arrived at the convention center around 8:30am and I was amazed by the sheer scale of the tournament. There were over 40 mats. Despite the enormous size of he tournament, our event was run quite well.

Kudos to Giovanni for his great and steady camera work. Giovanni was a huge help during the tournament and even though he wasn’t too hot on the idea of going to Ohio for this, he had a great experience when all was said and done. One of the highlights for Giovanni was meeting and getting a photo with Diary of a Wimpy Kid stars Zachary Gordon and Grayson Russel. Here is that photo:

A video of all Marco’s matches is below.

Marco dominated in his first match, winning by technical fall 13-1. He was beat by pin in his second match with about 20 seconds to go. The guy that beat him went on to win 2nd place. Marco had an amazing comeback pin in his third match, he was losing until that point. That was pretty exciting! Then, in his last match he was beat by the NYS Champion for 2011, the same kid that beat Marco in  the second round of the states.

In addition to the great wrestling, Marco made a few friends. In fact, he made friends with the two kids that tied for 7th place. Here is a gallery of some photos I took on the trip, enjoy!

[flickr-gallery width=240 height=180 mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157626553263310″]

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.  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!