4-0

Setting up a takedown.

It seems like Newt has been working toward this year his entire life...well since he was 5 years old. He started wrestling because his Uncle Karl was a wrestler. Newt went to his 1st wrestling match at the Naval Academy when he was 2 months old. He slept through all the yelling, cheering, and airhorn blowing.

At 5yo he began wrestling himself. He was a tiny 5yo and lost all his matches that 1st year but he went out on that mat with a smile on his little face and came off it with the same smile. At practice he asked his coach for more exercises, "Give me more push-ups coach to make me stronger." He loved the exercises...hadn't yet learned from the other kids that exercises were not supposed to be fun.

Through the years he won matches and lost matches. He had good seasons and bad. He went to wrestling practices year-round and wrestling clinics in the summer. We never pushed wrestling on him, never allowed weight cutting because winning was less important that his health, and I tried to hug him when he came off the mat no matter what the outcome of the match.

This past year, Newt asked Poppop to help him with his wrestling. He began lifting weights and Poppop coached him at matches. He began to take it more seriously. Last weekend, he won his 1st 3 high school matches.

Last night he was supposed to have a tough match against a senior who made it to Regions last year. He easily handled his opponent...controlling the entire match. He took the boy down and let him up to take him down again then in the last minute turned him twice to win a technical fall 18-3.

Back points

He'll win some and lose some this year and we'll hug him no matter what the outcome...but he's off to a good start!