The 1st weekend of March Tucker wrestled in the State Wrestling Tournament (Saturday was regular state and Sunday was Rookie State...1st year wrestlers only, so Tucker only wrestled Sunday....I think he would have done a great job at regular state, but nerves and emotions got the best of him). I still (even 2 and 1/2 months later) feel like Tucker pretty much got screwed over...but sometimes in wrestling things just don't go your way. He was so excited and pumped up, but he had to wait over 2 hours for his first match and then he ended up having to wrestle the kid who took 1st Place on Saturday in regular state...this kid was a great wrestler...there was no way in heck this was his first year wrestling, just the things this kid knew there was no possible way...but...anyways, Tucker fought hard, but those dang emotions got in the way and he ended up loosing.
He handled his emotions and came back and won the next 2 matches, but then he freaked out again because he thought he was going to wrestle the first kid again, even though everyone explained to him that he would not wrestle him again, he just wouldn't listen and went into his match against another kid with the mind set he wasn't going to win...so despite his effort, he couldn't manage to pull off a win.
He did end up with 4th Place and despite all the crap, I am so proud of him! To say wrestling is tough is an understatement...and adding in Tucker's extreme drive to win...it was a long season for everyone emotionally! Our club team did end up taking 1st place overall in Rookie State!!!!!
It's nice to have a break from wrestling, but we are already thinking of next year...where I could possibly have 3 wrestlers (Tucker and Ty want to wrestle, but Trey is still on the fence about it....I don't blame him...he knows it's going to be a lot of hard work!)
Tucker ended his first official season of wrestling with 18 wins and 8 loses. He had 2 - 1st places 4 - 2nd places 1 - 3rd place and 1 - 4th place (and if you add his two school district wrestling camp tournaments, you add 4 more wins and 2 more 1st places!) I'm so proud of him and if we can work on controlling his emotions next year he will have an even better season!