Mat Mama is Back

Saturday was our first wrestling tournament. Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm ready to going back to being a Mat Mama. Mat Mama is like Soccer Mom but we're a little meaner and encourage our kids to unmercifully take another kid down to the mat and grind his face into it. Ok, maybe not that bad but pretty close.

I'll post pictures tomorrow hopefully sometime of the boys. They haven't competed since April and neither one of them skipped a beat it seemed. Cole walked away with a 1st place medal and lots of parents and spectators crowding around to watch his matches. One couple, I overheard talking about how good Coley was. The Dad said, I wonder how long he's been wrestling. And the Mom responded with, the way he wrestles, probably since he could walk. I smiled because it's not that far back, but pretty close.

Kaden was ambitious this week and wrestled in two different weights. His regular weight and then wrestled in one class ablove him in the Middle School 5-6th graders. All a year to 2 years older than him. In his regular weight he did really well and took 4th. In the upper weight class he struggled and didn't place but I was really proud that he went out and wrestled really hard. His heart doesn't seem quite into this year and he made a passing comment to me that he wished he could play baseball year round. I don't know, maybe once he gets a couple more tournaments under his belt this season he'll be excited again.

I hate this time of year when we start wrestling. It's a grueling schedule for all of us. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday practices until 7 or 7:30 at night and usually a tournament every Saturday. And on top of that it's a long season until April. Wrestling does switch styles in about February to Freestyle, which is my favorite and it breaks up the season a bit. I don't look forward to the cringing as I watch one of my boys have their faces ground into a mat or the mat burns. I don't look forward to the tears when they come off the mat after a loss. I don't look forward to the late nights and the tantrums because their nights go so quickly BUT.... I am such a proud Mom when I get to see one of them jump in the air after a tough win. I love to watch the Ref raise their hand indicating a win. I love to watch my boys have great sportsmanship when they shake the hand of their competitor and their coaches. I feel so good when I hear people talking about my boys and how great they are. I just swell with pride because these are MY boys and with all the sacrifices and all the bad things that come along with this sport, it's all worth it when I see how much my boys have grown and how competing has made them pretty special and responsible kids.

So ya, I'm a Mat Mama again. Watch out!!!