Deja vu.

This morning we went to Wahpeton to watch my two nephews compete in a Pee-Wee wrestling tournament. As we walked through the gym doors, I was hit with a serious case of deja vu. The smell of the gym, the noise from the full bleachers, the sight of the competitors... wow! I turned to Steve and said, "Being here really takes me back."
In my former life, I was a wrestling cheerleader. Before that, I was a spectator at my older brother's matches. I have definitely spent hours upon hours watching kids grapple. The difference is I am now watching the next generation. There were many parents in the stands who were classmates of mine at Oakes High School, watching their kids dual it out on the mats.

There were a lot of emotions going on in that gym... the exhilaration of winning, the agony of an injury, the pain of defeat. I told Steve that I thought wrestling was good "man-training" (I'll give a shout out to the handful of girls who were competing as well). It seems that wrestling teaches these mini-men how to be confident; how to be competitive; how to control their bodies; how to be good sports; and how to suck it up when things don't go as planned.
Here is Logan, who is 7 and in first grade, winning his third match. Look at the anquish on his opponents face. It about breaks my heart!

This is Kaleb (maroon singlet) during his second match. He is 12 and in the 7th grade.

Kaleb had a quick pin and ended up in 1st place in his section. Hurray, Kaleb!

As I was watching the matches, I had cheers ('You've got to pin to win!', 'Take down for 2') running through my head. Luckily, I didn't loose my cool and start shouting and clapping like a dork! Like I said, deja vu.
Kippy was patiently waiting with Logan after his final match so he could get his trophy. Logan finished first in his section as well.

Yay Logan!

For those of you who haven't ever been to a wrestling tourney, there is a lot of bleacher time. We watched Kaleb and Logan compete in 4 matches, which totaled less than 15 minutes, but our elapsed time at the gym was almost 4 hours.

So, we needed to indulge the kids in some snacks... mmmmm yummy ice cream bars!

We had a great time watching our nephews compete. And we are so PROUD of them!