Wrestling...one more week!

Newt is wrestling the final season of his high school career and he has extended it one more week! Last weekend he took 1st in District 31 bringing his career record to 119-20 and last night he took 2nd in Region 8 after a tough (3-1) loss.

It was a crazy weekend full of ups and downs!

Thursday afternoon we got a call from the school athletic trainer saying Newt had been hit in the face when he collided with another kid's forehead in gym class and needed an x-ray to make sure nothing was broken. He had blown his nose and the side of his face had blown up. I rushed to the school, took one look at his face, and had a sinking feeling in my gut because I thought there was no way there wasn't something broken. The whole side of his face was huge with a couple cuts from the pressure of the blow. All the work he had put in all season (actually for the majority of his life) seemed to be gone in a blink of an eye.

We rushed to Urgent Care because I knew we'd get in fast there which we did. He got x-rays and the doctor had them read them then took them over to the radiologist because he wasn't sure. They decided nothing was broken so he could wrestle the next day. He iced on and off all evening. His eye grew black and blue. His brother dug in the equipment box at school and found a mask at the bottom of the box for him to attach to his head gear while wrestling...how he found it or who left it there, I have no idea. Strange because I was looking for one on the internet to order and could not find fast enough shipping to get it here on time.

The mask wasn't the greatest. Any time he got hit in the head or knocked his head on an opponent, it shifted, blocking his view but it was better than not being able to wrestle at all. Friday night he won his first match by tech fall (17-2) while watching the match on the mat next to him where his, most likely, toughest opponent was getting pinned after being caught in a head lock.

Moving on to the semi-final match Saturday morning, Newt controlled his opponent to a 16-2 win. He was now going on to States whether he won or lost in the finals! He had achieved his main goal for the season!

Under the lights at Regions...Good thing they got his good side!

The finals match was a tough one. His opponent kept knocking the mask pushing it down over his eyes. Early in the 1st period Newt asked the ref if he could exchange it for plain headgear so he could see to wrestle but the ref wouldn't allow it saying he had facial hair. (Newt's "facial hair" is about 4 little pieces of scruff that the head gear chin pad would cover.) Newt got taken down out of bounds in the last second of the 1st period when they were all tied up going out of bounds and Newt lost his whizzer as the buzzer sounded. In the 2nd and 3rd period each boy got an escape. The final score was 3-1.

Newt was in high spirits last night! It has always been his dream to wrestle in the State tournament!

Newt with his high school coaches!