So here are a few:

From a dual Saturday, Satch — weighing in at a lithe 48.4lbs — takes on a 61 pound foe. The voice you hear coaching him (along with mine) is Leister Bowling, who is a grappling coach for a number of top UFC fighters (including at times George St Pierre) and one of the coaches of our Metro club:

From the same dual, Satchel loses a heartbreaker to a kid we found out after has placed in every state tournament he’s entered, including the Tulsa Open and tournaments in Nebraska and other states. He’s been wrestling for 6 years and, his coach informed both Satch and I, hasn’t lost a dual match in several years.

It was a great match; at the end, the kid was holding on to Satchel’s leg for dear life. Had Satch had a few more seconds he would have turned him and won the match. And I am still dubious about the two back points awarded the opponent when Satchel merely rolled through. All that notwithstanding, here are two very good youth wrestlers going at it. And the heartening part? Once again, at 53.6lbs this opponent was outside of Satchel’s weight class:

Here’s a quick match from the same dual. This is generally what happens when Satchel isn’t giving up more than 3 to 4 pounds. His opponent here was 52lbs:

And here’s a couple matches from some recent tournaments. This first is from the Christmas Classic. Satchel took 4th, wrestling up against 56 while weighing in at 48.7. He had an unfortunate bracket; he has beaten the kid who took second, and would have doubtless beat him again had they been matched up. Satchel was one of the 3 best in the bracket. The kid who took third is very good, beating Satchel 12-5 in a match that was closer than it sounds — and his mother approached us at the medal stand to tell us her son said of Satch that “that kid can’t be pinned.” We’re working on him getting his legs caught in scrambles. Once he fixes that — and learns not to go back on his heals after faking a shot — I think he’ll become very difficult to take down.

Here’s a match against a 56lb in that tournament:

Here’s the match for third and fourth, which Satchel lost 12-5. He was giving away 7 lbs:

And finally, here’s a match from the Broomfield Invitational that I love. In the previous match, Satchel hyperextended his knee. I wanted to sit him for the final match and just take the 5th place State Seeding points. Again, he was giving up 8 lbs in this bracket.

Satchel finished the match where he hurt his knee, which was remarkable enough. What he did in the final match to win fourth was even more inspiring. He could barely push off of his leg, and the kid he was facing was bigger and stronger than him, particularly once Satch lost the ability to really explode off that one leg.

Satchel had beaten this kid in the opening match of the day 12-4; this time, he got behind 8-0, and I was already proud of him for going out there and competing while still quite gimpy. What happened at the end, though? Truly inspiring:

Enjoy! Or don’t. But this stuff reminds me of what’s important. Merry Christmas, everyone!