The Big Cat Tournament

Dax's first match at the Big Cat Tournament at Mead High School was against a youngster from Post Falls ID. It was a tough match, Dax ended up pinning him in the first round but it was a tough fight till the finish and the boy was not very happy that he had gotten pinned. There were 400-500 boys at the tournament. We left Friday afternoon and slept in a hotel in Spokane. That made the early morning and long day a little less early and long. The kids did great.

 Dax's second match was against a little guy from Connell WA. I told Dax that if he won the match he would get a medal for sure and that he would have a chance at getting his first gold medal. He came out fired up and took the boy down immediately. He sunk in his half nelson and the boy struggled to get off his back for the first round. I am pretty sure that he was stuck but the ref didn't' see it. The boys mom told him to scoot out of bounds. She said it in spanish, maybe thinking that nobody would understand what she was saying to her kid. He made it past the first round, but his coach had him chose both up and Dax proceeded to tackle the kid again and turn him to his back. He pinned him quickly in the second round. He was very excited to be wrestling in the championship match.

Dax faced a young boy from Moses Lake in the finals match. I was hoping he would avenge my terrible loses to Moses Lake wrestlers in the past. He did awesome, I think he surprised the kid early on. Dax had to fight off of his back in the first round which zapped a lot of his energy. He fought hard and eventually got a reversal. Dax has been battling a respiratory issue lately and I thought that he was over it. I guess it is a lot less noticeable when he pins the other opponents early in the match. He has a very hard time breathing and he gets very upset. It was tied up at 5-5 going into the third round. The other boy chose bottom. Dax rode hard for the first half of the round but eventually the boy got a reversal and turned Dax to his back. He fought for a while but didn't have a lot left in the tank. He got pinned with short time left in the match. He surprised our coaches and he has really improved this year. I hope he is liking it. I know that it is a very intense and emotional sport. He has told me before, dad sometimes when I am wrestling I feel like I am going to cry. That made me sad, but he wants to go back out there for the next match so hopefully he is building character in enduring challenges and gaining confidence. The scary thing is he is a natural at it and could be really good if he wants to, but he is still so young and at this point it needs to be about fun. It is sad to hear some of the coaches of some of the other teams, they get in the kids face and tell them how they are not performing and that they are disgracing the team. The yell at the kids and tell them that they did nothing during their match and that they are going to stop coaching them during their match because they don't listen anyway. I overheard one Sunnyside parent talking to his kid while he dug into his happy meal after the tournament. He said you guys work out with the best of the best every day, you guys are wrestling 7 and 9 year olds (that tells you how old the kids were, 5-6), there is no excuse for you not to be coming home with hardware, you need to medal at every tournament. Come on, kids are kids, it breaks my heart to hear that garbage. It is interesting to see the kids at this age and then compare them to what I remember about their clubs in high school, they start them early with an attitude and I don't think that it is helping them one bit in school. Anyway, Dax is a happy go lucky kid, it is hard to see him lose, but we love him even more in those vulnerable moments and he handles it well. After his loss in the finals, one of the Bell twins came running down the stairs to tell him that he did a great job and that he still got a medal so that is really good, it was super cute to see the boys interact in that moment, a 6 yr old trying to console his buddy who just had a tough match. Before he made it back to our seat in the stands another one of his buddies came up to him and told him he did a great job and that he still got second and he himself had never gotten second so it was really good.

The girls did good enduring another long tournament. Dayna was a little upset about waiting around but in the end they love supporting their brother.

This last week at practice the coach was looking to see who was going to state. It is the end of the year tournament, anyone can go, two years ago they had 1,500 kids show up. We weren't too sure about going because it was his first year and we didn't know how he would do. We also said something to the effect that it would be hard to find a hotel because of all the kids coming from out of town to Spokane for the tournament. After the coach watched Dax wrestle at practice that day he came up to me afterwards and said, so if we find you guys a hotel you'll go right? Because I think he can place in state. So after that practice we booked our hotel, which will make for 3 consecutive weekends in Spokane. The kids love staying in a hotel though.

The kids took a moment to pose on the Mead Panther. It was a well run tournament and a nice school.

Here is a funny video of Avy on our way home from church, she was so tired that she kept waking herself up as the iPad would fall. She insisted on holding the iPad but couldn't keep her eyes open to see her show or game.