My son’s wrestling team remains undefeated after victory over the only other undefeated team we play. It was thrilling. I did a lot of cheering and jumping up and down. Who would have guessed that I, an avid hater of all things sports related, would get so into this one?
The best part? When Andrew got home after the JV meet, he was pleased I’d ordered a pizza. We toasted his victory with a bottle of sparkling apple cider. He looked at me and said, “Thanks mom. Really. Thanks. (But I won’t be thanking you on Saturday morning.)” Then he went downstairs to do homework and thanked Clare for going to the meet.
Wow.
I’d heard great things about Andrew’s wrestling coach before Andrew was on the team. Then this summer Andrew received a wonderful & personal letter from him welcoming Andrew to the team. Andrew, Dean and I have all received emails from the coach on various matters, all of which have been delightful to read – both in content and form.
Yesterday the coach proved, once again, what a fine role model he is in an interaction with Andrew after an upsetting loss. I’m not going into details, they are private, but Derek Manon is one heck of a wrestling coach on a number of levels.
This morning I woke up with a near-migraine complete with nausea. I was also dehydrated. Bright lights hurt my eyes. My back hurt, up in-between my shoulder blades. If I’d consumed copious amounts of alcohol last night it would have made sense, but all I did yesterday was hang out at a wrestling tournament. For thirteen and a half hours we sat and watched high school boys compete for medals.
I’m not sure if the headache was a result of having only drank one cup of coffee that morning, not drinking nearly enough water during the day, skipping dinner for the second day in a row, the set up during the finals (one large mat set up in the center of the gym with a single lamp shining down on the center of the mat and no other lights burning in the gym — it looked like a scene for a Rocky movie without the ropes and smoke), or all of the above. I swear I drank no alcohol last night. I could barely make it up the stairs to fall into bed much less open a bottle of wine.
The team came in a distant second. We had three wrestlers in the finals, two of whom won first place. We had several others with 3rd through 6th place spots. Andrew got 5th place.
Lessons learned: drink lots of water and bring healthy snacks, not only for Andrew, but for myself as well.
What you said