Ready? Wrestle!

Another wrestling season has begun. Payton is so much fun to watch! I thought Porter was going to start wrestling this year. He was all talk before the first practice, telling me that he was going to beat them all down! The day of the first practice he had a melt down. He started crying and saying he wasn't going to wrestle because all the kids would beat him up. Needless to say I didn't push him (too much) and he isn't wrestling this year. He likes to get dressed for wrestling practice and if we get there in enough time he likes to warm up with all the wrestlers but that's as far as he goes!

Payton is the biggest 1st grader at practice. He's over 80 lbs. and he's almost a head taller than the biggest 1st grader. It was a little frustrating for me to watch him pair up with a partner for practice when he would choose kindergarten kids that I knew he could beat easily. During one practice the coach sent Payton up to wrestle with the 2-5 graders. That was so good for him. He had to actually work hard! The next practice I tried to talk Payton into just going with the 2-5 grade kids for practice but he wouldn't do it because "the coach didn't tell me to". Well, I kinda' lied to the boy and went and grabbed him from the preschool-1st grade side and said the coach wanted him to always practice with the bigger kids. Since then, he hasn't had a problem wrestling the older kids (heck! They're his size anyway...just older!)

His first tournament was in Parowan and he was a little apprehensive before the match started because he knew there would be a possibility that he might have to wrestle second graders because he's so big. Fortunately he got to stay with the first graders...but he was the heaviest one there was. He only had three kids (including him) in his group so the worst he could have done was bring home a bronze medal. He did what he set out to do and came home with his first gold of the season!

I'm looking forward to more matches this year. I love that he's enjoying it so much. I love that when we come home from practice and he's gotten beat by kids he just smiles and tells me how much fun he's having! It makes these tournaments (the one in Parowan, we wait from 8-11:30 for his first match to happen!) worth the time...and we're doing something together as a family!