Tiger Style Wrestling

I know. I never thought I would miss the day of being a "Hurricane Tiger". I've always been so true and proud to be a Panther, but having kids do activities in Tiger Territory has changed my opinion. My boys have loved the wrestling program that Hurricane High puts on. Last night was their first tournament for this year and they both did so well! Porter took third as a 38 lb. kindergarten kid and Payton took first in the 2nd grade 75-94 lb bracket. Yea, Payton was the chunky one in the bracket and will probably get put with 3rd graders next tourny but he loves his gold. 

I need to write one thing from wrestling this year because I know I'll forget it later. At one of the their practices I couldn't be there because I was working and Todd was out on a fire. Tiff was willing to pick the boys up and drop them off to their practice that night. When I picked the boys up on my way home from work I asked how things went. Payton said he had to wrestle 100 lb. third grade girl in practice! Then he told me what his coach had told him...

"Coach Hirschi said, 'Is this a sport for girls?' and I said no and he said, 'Make her cry! Make her wanna go home!"

So I asked him if he made her cry. He said, "Well, a little but that was before the coach said anything to me."

I had a quick conversation with his coach and he told me, "Ya know, we teach our boys to respect girls but when we're on the football field or the wrestling mat, we tell our boys to beat the hell out of each other."

I just smiled because I know Todd feels the same way but as a girl/mom I wasn't quite sure how to feel about my boy making a girl cry. I just hoped the girl would not want to come back the next week. I was wrong. Oh well? The most ironic thing of all was that 'the girl' he was wrestling was Casey Shomaker, one of our neighbors when we lived in the basement on Telegraph in Washington.

-Wrestling Tiger Style-

Bronze medal

I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures of Payton but here's a little video footage...