Yesterday Satchel competed in the Big Horn Nationals Wrestling tournament held in the Budweiser Events Center here in Colorado.   Despite his being only 2 weeks into his 10-and-under career — and facing far more experienced wrestlers in this, his first tournament of the season — he finished 3rd, earning an “All American” certificate and a third place trophy.

The first place winner — a very polished young girl — came in from Nevada to compete; the second place winner traveled in from Minnesota.   These are serious competitors: you simply don’t make the trip out here to participate in a tournament unless you are one of the tops in your age group.  Or your parents are morons with a lot of money to spend.

In fact, there were contestants from all over the country and even a few from Canada, with kids making the trek from Georgia and Washington State, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, and a host of other states I’m not remembering off the top of my head.  Couple this with the large arena and crowd, and it was a daunting experience for a kid who’s not used to wresting in such a venue.

Satchel has  a long way to go to reach the level of some of the country’s top kids in his age and weight bracket this year, but — after his loss to the second place winner — the referee took the kindly and unprecedented step to seek me and Satchel out and tell his that Satchel’s bridge is “the best he’s ever seen.”  The rest is now up to his coaches, and this year, along with me, Satch is being coached by Leister Bowling and Sonny Yohn, two very decorated amateur wrestlers and Div I college All Americans, both of whom are excellent coaches — with Leister Bowling the wrestling coach for an MMA gym in Col0rado that works with some of the UFC’s top fighters (and as an assistant coach on The Ultimate Fighter a year or so ago).

So while Satchel was disappointed he didn’t take second place, which had he won his last match he would have done, I recognized that he had been wrestling every day in practice for two weeks and was coming off a dual on Saturday, and so was probably pretty beat when he competed.  This was a conscious decision on my part:  I wanted him to take a measure of where he was when placed against the absolute top line competition, and then temper his disappointment by reminding him his season just started, that he’d been going without a break for two weeks, and that, by the end of the season, we hope to have  prepared to see these same kids again somewhere, better trained, better rested, and with the confidence of having competed well in some local tournaments.

His mother and I are very proud of him.  The jump from 8 and under to 10 and under is a very difficult one for wrestlers.  And if I know Satchel, he’ll redouble his efforts — if only because the kid does like his bling!