Semi-State Surprise!

Just when I thought all the wrestling posts were done, the most amazing thing happened. My son suffered a subluxation of his shoulder in practice Thursday, where the shoulder popped out and back into the socket. As of Friday evening we didn’t even think he would wrestle in the regional tournament because of the pain and lack of mobility and strength.

Saturday morning he woke up and said he was going to wrestle, so we kept it iced until it was time for his match and then put a brace on it. He knew he had a tough match because he had lost to his first opponent 2-1 earlier in the year. He came out on fire, controlled the whole match and won 7-2.

Only the top three places advance to the semi-state in Indiana (which again has only one class for wrestling) and the next kid he had to wrestle was one of the best in the state. There was little hope of beating him, especially with an injured shoulder. As his father and coach, I made the call: We would injury default the next match rather than risk further damage to his shoulder and try to take third place, advance to the semi-state, and give his shoulder a week to heal.

So he defaulted the next match and went down into the third and fourth place bracket to face an inner-city wrestler who had, earlier in the day, defeated the wrestler TJ lost to in the sectional finals the week before.

TJ wrestled his heart out and when he entered the third period ahead 5-2, he didn’t let down. He wrestled the rest of the match like be was behind on points, scored another takedown and went on to win 7-3.

My son fought through his injury to qualify for semi-state. I couldn’t be prouder of him, not because he won, but because of the effort he put forth all day.What a great way to finish his senior year!