Yes, I’m a proud poppa. Can you tell? Also, please ignore the bit of ass you can see in the championship match as I kneel mat side. My wife couldn’t have captured a more unflattering angle.
Besides, it’s about the boy, not me.
Match one, Satch wins 8-0. Video lost to a crapped-out cell phone. The short of it: Satch kept wrist control and essentially rode the kid all three rounds.
Match two, Satch wins 4-2 in OT over the bracket favorite, who isn’t accustomed to losing, particularly in his home city. Check out the take down his opponent scored on: hands clasped, no arm in, near the mat’s edge. Was it even legal?
Match three, Satch wins the championship, 8-1.
Congrats, little fella. Well done. Be proud of yourself.
Kid is like a duck on a junebug! Don’t the little guys wear headgear?
Satch is pushing his hair out of his eyes a lot. Maybe it’s big guy haircut time?
Great job! Good coaching, Dad!
Yay! That’s the good stuff right there: stern contest, athletic striving artfully executed and sportsmanly well conducted — albeit indeed, Adrian the Disgruntled might do better learning to growl “Aargh” like a dignified pirate in lieu of barking “shit” like a loser.
He drives his hips nice and low on the sprawl.
Yeah, leigh, we noticed yesterday (and Satch commented) that he was pushing his hair out of his eyes. Bang trim today before next week’s tournament, which is on the home mat of the kid he beat in OT.
Should be a good rematch. That kid, I suspect, cuts weight, because he looked quite a bit more than 3-4 pounds heavier than Satchel. (The tournament combined the 45 and 50 weight classes into a single bracket).
As to headgear, it’s only mandatory at certain tournaments, depending on the licensing body. Satch wore headgear his first season and has only worn it a couple times since. It just seems to distract him, so he prefers without for now. As he gets older and the elbow pinches to the ears get more aggressive, he’ll probably gravitate toward headgear. I have a nice Cliff Keen pair of my own that he can use in about five years, assuming he’s still at it.
Thanks for the kind words!
Ok, we have GOT to get wrestling back into Olympics! I want to see Satch on the Gold Medal stand!
Awesome stuff! Congrats!
On second hearing, sdferr, we concluded that it was his Mother who dropped the expletive. It just happened to coincide with the boy’s banging his fist.
If you go back a bit, you can hear it again when they believe Adrian’s about to get a takedown and back points before Satch hits a great bridge and re-roll. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get all the way around to get control and pick up points, a testament, actually, to Adrian’s presence of mind. Normally when a kid thinks he’s about to score like that and finds himself suddenly reversed he hesitates. Adrian managed to grab at something and keep Satch from getting the two points that would have given him the match in regulation.
On the other hand, Satchel did a great job in the last 30 seconds of regulation to avoid giving up a takedown and losing at the very last instance. I counted at least three times where he managed to either hip heist, bridge, or otherwise belly down to avoid giving up points there at the end. You can see on two occasions the ref ready to award take down points had Satchel not been so quick to avoid control. The best part of that being that he’s finally learning to do it without thinking.
He’s got a great bridge; and that’s one of the reasons he was only pinned once (so far, and knock wood) this season, having been caught in a cradle for the first time. After, we worked on getting out of cradles and keeping his head up better.
Ah, it could well be and I’d not like to accuse unjustly young Adrian of a thing he did not do. I did think I’d seen a certain shape of mouth forming just as his head turned away in coincidence with the outburst, and hence leapt to that incorrect attribution. He’s clearly a tough opponent though and will likely have a keen motivation when next up.
I see what you’re saying about the headgear for the little guys. Joey wears headgear, but I believe it’s mandatory in high school matches. He’s still wearing braces on his teeth, so he has a mouth guard, too. Sadly, this was a dismal season for his team and only one guy went to State. But, there’s always next year!
Track just started so, thank God I can get him to eat again. I’m always afraid that them trying to make weight all the time is going to stunt his growth. He’s built like my dad and my brothers: all shoulders and big chest, but he’s not tall and is wrestling at 120+ whatever their margin is. I hope he hits a growth spurt over the summer.
Satch does have a great bridge and is quick as a snake. Fear him! other little wrasslers.
Congratulationa, Master Satchel! Well done.
Good moves! That’s confidence building right there, with good reaction speed and timing. He’ll only get better as time progresses.
That’s a fine boy you got yourself, Boss. Well done to you both!
Hey Jeff: to everything there is a solution.
The kid is quick!
Jeff, I know you’ve put a lot of effort and attention into the development of Satchel, and so far…wow. Good job.
…and of course Satchel himself gets some credit. Because you don’t have success without wanting it.