Kids State

Last Friday, we loaded up the kids and dog and headed to Redmond for Kids State. We thought we would make a fun weekend of it so we rented a house in Eagle Crest. Hanley was excited about the hot tub at the house and Henrik was excited to sleep in "bonk beds."  But before we hit the road, Hanley reminded Cody to pack his phone "that way Daddy can play my wrestling songs in the morning". I love how much this tournament morning tradition means to him.

Friday night was spent getting settled into the house followed by a dip in the hot tub, weigh ins at the fair grounds, out for pizza for dinner, then back to the house for another dip in the hot tub.

Saturday morning was typical for a tournament morning. We were up and out of the house early at 6:30am with all the necessities (snacks, lots of snacks).

Hanley didn't have a very good warm up that morning. His elbows were skinned up and starting to split open from the prior days adventure at JJ Jump. A couple bandaids and he seemed a little better.

Pee Wee 35-40lb bracket was a 16 man bracket, double elimination.

He got dominated in his first match.  Pinned within 30 seconds. With a poor warm up, I could tell he just wasn't ready to wrestle. We wished this match would have lasted long so he could have gotten more experience out of it.  But instead it was over in the blink of an eye.

By his 2nd match, he was ready to go.  You could see it on his face in the pre wrestle handshake. He wrestled well and technically sound. He pinned his opponent in the 2nd period. If you ask Hanley about this match, he will tell you all about how he "couldn't get that kid in a half nelson, so he put him in a cradle and pinned him!" Listening to a 5 year olds recap on a match is always entertaining.

He wrestled hard in his 3rd match. His opponent was a 2nd year wrestler from Burns and he was tough.  Hanley gave it his all but ended up getting caught in a Saturday Night Ride and the match was over in the 2nd period.  And with it being his 2nd loss, so was the tournament.

Once off the mat, the water works came. When asked what the tears were for he said "he just wasn't tough enough". We told him that wasn't the case at all. He made that kid work hard for that pin and we were so proud of him. We also reminded him that we had a whole fun weekend ahead of us back at the house!

We finished out the weekend having lots of fun at the house with Oma and Opa.  Being the water dogs that the boys are, they spent most of the weekend down at the pool or in the hot tub. We also played endless amounts of board games, had family meals at the house, and took a long walk with the dogs along the bike trails at Eagle Crest.

On our way home Hanley told us two things when we asked him if he would like to come back and wrestle at State next year. First he said, "Heck ya, we are coming back next year. I'm gonna bring lots of thunder for all those guys there." Then he asked Cody if he could teach him how to do push ups so he could get stronger. This is what I love so much about Hanley. Instead of feeling down and defeated, he accepted the loss, searched for ways to become a better wrestler and isn't afraid to take on the challenge again next year.  This kind of attitude is what will take him far in life...on or off the mat.

...And since we have been home, he's cornered Cody every evening so they can work on their push ups together.

Keep up the hard work kid...in whatever you do in life.

Pee Wee Wrestling

In the past year, we have tried to expose Hanley to different sports and activities. He tried indoor soccer, t-ball, swimming, and various summer camps.  He had fun doing each of them but seemed to be more interested in the social aspect of the sport than the actual sport itself.  I remember when we signed him up for t-ball with his best friend. Every Saturday we would ask him if he was excited for t-ball. His response was always the same, "Yeah! I am excited to see Collin!"

This winter, he tried something new. Wrestling. Pee Wee Wrestling. We took him to the first practice just to "check it out". He didn't know anything about wrestling or anyone in the local youth club. Driving home that night, we asked him what he thought and if he wanted to go back. There was not an ounce of hesitation when he told us he wanted to continue.

He spent the first couple weeks as a stereotypical wall flower but seemed to enjoy all aspects of practice. Then one night, he scored his first takedown.  Then he proceeded to score 5 more in a row as they moved down the line at practice.  Before we knew it he was baring his teeth during the pre-wrestling handshake and pumping his fists after each takedown (no joke, I have it on video). Cody and I just shrugged our shoulders and looked at each other in disbelief. Who was this kid?!

In the time since Hanley's breakout performance at practice, we have spent countless evening hours at practice and nearly every Saturday in the gym at wrestling tournaments.  Each Saturday starts the same.  Cody wakes Hanley up blaring the Hulk Hogan theme song (followed by The Heartbreak Kid) pumping him up for the day.  Henrik on the other hand, quietly gets scooped up in his jammies and placed directly in the truck, slowly waking up on our drive to the high school.

Over the season, we have continued to watch Hanley's skill, technique and confidence improve each week. Hanley earned his first medal placing 2nd at the Oregon City tournament, 3rd at the Z-Man tournament, 1st place at the Newberg Qualifying tournament on Cody's birthday weekend, and recently earned 1st again at the Art Reynolds NW Collegiate tournament. The growth in Hanley's self confidence since he started the season has been truly remarkable.

There is no doubt wrestling has been great for Hanley but I had no idea how great it would be for our whole family and how much fun the 4 of us would have doing it together.  More on that and our fun weekend at Kids State in Redmond later...