Last Saturday I participated in my third sectional meet. This was the second time I had made it to the sectional finals. I wanted to win it more than any other meet this year. I made my plan early in the week and all throughout practice I went over how I was going to wrestle each of my opponents. I had it down and then came time to execute my plan of action.

Saturday morning are always the worst because you tired hungry and when you get onto the bus you’re very cold. So every Saturday morning I wake up around 6, get in my car, and take off to the school. The bus ride, when it’s warm, is one of my favorite parts about wrestling because I just get to relax and talk to my buddies if they are not asleep. But this Saturday was different; I felt more relaxed and I wasn’t nervous at all like I usually was because in the back of my mind I knew if I wrestle like I know I can, winning this would be no problem. So when we finally got to Twin Lakes, we had to make a 50-yard dash toward the door in the cold. Then when we got it the building, we were the last school to get there and they were about to start weighing in. So we walked over to the corner, and as soon as I took my first step in the door, I heard them call my weight class. So I stripped down to my undies as fast as I could and was jumping over to the scale while trying to take off my socks. I made weight and finally got to eat except my Mom was bringing me food and wasn’t there yet. And then I came to find out I was the first and only match of the first round.

So I went out to the middle mat for the only match of the first round. Everyone was looking at me and my opponent. As I was shaking his hand, I remembered how coach Burrous told me how this kid would try to through a headlock. The whistle blew and I grabbed the kid by his hands and ran backwards right off the mat. That made me angry so the ref called us back to the center, and when the ref blew the whistle again, I threw a headlock and stuck the kid. I had passed my first challenge. Then it was on to my next challenge who turned out to be a girl.

       She and I walked to the mat, we shook hands, I threw a headlock, and that was all she wrote. So the second round did not take me that long, but I knew the third round was going to be the match that would decide if I was going to win it all. This was not because this kid was the best; it was because he had beaten me three weeks before. So I had a fire in me and I wanted to beat this kid for then anything. The last time we had faced I was a different much more reckless wrestler, but he did not know that.

I was focused, ready, and prepared for this match. We stepped on the mat, the whistle blew, and I was calm. I kept my distance and waited to strike. Then when he was vulnerable, I attacked and took him down. Then for the next two periods I let him wear down; then I pinned him. I was excited but I knew I still had one match left.

In the finals I walked on the mat, shook my West Central opponent’s hand, and tied up with him. I had never wrestled him before but I had seen him wrestle. I could tell that I was much stronger than him and I needed to get him down. That’s where I would win the match. The only problem though was he was very squirmy. But I finally got him down. Then during the second period I was on bottom and when the ref blew the whistle, I shot up as fast as I could and escaped. That gave me one more point. The rest of the period was pretty much just me trying to wear him down. Then the third period came and he was on bottom and he fought as hard as he could to get up and he did. But I took him down again turned him to his back and almost had him pinned, but the time ran out and I won 9-1. The Ref raised my hand and I looked up in the stands at my Mom and Dad and I could not contain my goofy smile.