Fun Wrestling Events! & I'm Tired!

 My goal for this year was to create more fun and hype at our dual meets.  WHY did we have to have so many home meets in the same weeks?  It was fun but so tiring!  And so much organization and planning.  

I'm going to have to reevaluate and decide if it was worth my time. But the events were so fun.

This week we did a teacher appreciation event & senior night.

We also had a girls dual on Wednesday, so 3 nights in a row--2 of them huge events at Shorewood.  Also Tuesday was important because if we won, we got into the first ever WA Dual State Tournament.  

Shoreline Area News Article I wrote about the Teacher Night.  

Sarah helped deliver the message to the teachers.  I used AI to help me summarize all the nice things the kids said about their teachers. 

Derek giving intense feedback to Max after a match.  

Ben getting a quick pin. 

We did win, so Saturday (which was going to be a day off) turned into a dual meet.  We sat one of our best kids, who is recovering from an injury, so we went 0-2 at Dual Meet state (we could have won the 2nd match with Lukas, but decided not to risk it as he recovers for next weekend's district meet.) 

I think the teachers really enjoyed the event on Tuesday.  They seemed touched by the invitation, the gift, the t-shirt and recognition.  Sometimes (often, all the time) teaching is pretty thankless.   Also, many stayed for the match, and it was the first match they'd ever seen. So that was really fun too.  I hope they wear their shirts to school and hype up wrestling to their students. 

Wednesday we went to a match at Kamiak, although we wrestled Shorecrest and Mariner. 

It wasn't a great night for us.  Finley had a great match.  Sarah beat the two Shorecrest girls at her weight.  But then Sarah got pinned by the Mariner girl.  Ulyana hurt her knee.  The girls season continues to be a struggle for everyone but Finley.

We did a combo Senior Night on Thursday, boys and girls.   It was super fun--we had the Stormray, the drum line, a balloon arch, and the senior singlets/heads (hilarious).  We had 13 seniors to honor.  So it wasn't a short night.  But we kept it organized.  We only had a couple of girls matches.  Then the boys handed it to Lynnwood.  

Sarah ended up getting pinned--but she did get a takedown first. 

I love creating fun events.  But I gotta pace myself better next year.  Whew.  Thankfully we are on to the post-season now.  Sarah hurt her knee in practice on Friday, so she didn't wrestle yesterday, sadly.  But it seems like just a bruise, so she'll be back for districts.

Ben did well at Dual state.  He made it into the 3rd period with the kid from Hermiston--getting teched while everyone else got pinned.  Then he beat the kid from Snohomish.  We missed both because we were at Lady Hawk for the morning (so no photos).  We got to Edmonds Woodway just in time to see the last two matches that sealed the loss of the 2nd dual.  But then I stayed with Derek and we watched the rest of the tournament.  It's more fun to watch when you have no skin in the game.  Hermiston destroyed everyone.  Also we got to see ALMOST a bench clearing brawl between Edmonds Woodway and Lincoln.  Derek had to go into cop mode and push people back, etc.  It was crazy.  (And some bad officiating.) Just practice this week--and starting to get ready for 5th grade camp.

We also bought plane tickets this week to go to Omaha in March for the Junior College National Championships.  Don't know if Libby will be wrestling, but some other Shorewood Alums will be--so we're going!  Then Ben and I will go to Orlando from Omaha to Brad's wedding.  Going to be a crazy weekend!