My lil' Mat Rattler . . .

Last weekend we drove to Lewiston, ID and then made our way back to Pomeroy bright and early Saturday morning for Jakob's wrestling tournament. Jake's first match he was paired up with one of his teammates . . . it's always pretty disappointing when that happens considering there are plently of kids from other teams that are in the same weight class. During the 2nd match, he pinned his opponent . . . Jakob's always so very proud when the ref slaps the mat and then raises his arm in the air in Victory! And of course it's a "Proud Mama Moment" for me as well! We got through a bad week (which I'm so glad is finally over) and then this past week just flew right by . . . we were on the road again on Saturday by 5:30 AM headed this time to Warden. It's surprising that Warden (a small migrant farming town) has such a successful wrestling program here in the State of Washington. You definitely can tell the importance of wrestling in this town the minute you walk into their gym, the listings of names and team championship banners would take you forever to read. So, while winning State Titles is obviously a huge thing there, janitorial services ARE NOT! That school was the filthiest place we've had a tournament at . . . I couldn't wait to leave!

Jakob's first match ended just as planned . . . he has met up with this boy from Moses Lake before and pinned him again in just 55 seconds. I've never seen Jake jump up from the mat so fast, both arms in the air and the huge grin on his face. This picture doesn't quite show the grin I'm talking about, but believe me Jakob was beyond ecstatic! Jake ended the day in the consolation round, winner wrestles for 3rd place . . . what a heart breaker! After leading in all three rounds to a very tough opponent, he had just 30 seconds left and all he needed to do was keep the other kid from scoring any points. With just 10 seconds remaining the other boy reversed to the top position and had Jake on his back . . . he was pinned!

We've decided to not travel out of town for next weekend's tournament to give Jakob a break before the BIG State Tournament in Cheney at Eastern the day before Easter. Only four more practices left of the season and we're going to have him well rested and ready to receive a medal.

I still have some LO's to share and hopefully will get them up tomorrow . . .