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Wrestling season ends–The Way Life Ought to Be
It has been a snowy season, with many cancelled meets, but the end has arrived. I’ve got pictures of the regionals (held last weekend), but not the state meet (yesterday) since I was at the karate tournament with Eli. Joshua placed fourth in his weight class in the Eastern half of Maine, despite lackluster performance on the mat (which he acknowledges). But all in all, Joshua did phenomenally well (especially considering he got hit by a car last July), and the Camden team did outstandingly well, too. Here’s one moment early in one of Joshua’s matches:
Still, Joshua did well enough that he was able to compete in States! Although he didn’t place there, the mere fact that 8 months ago he was in the hospital receiving his second transfusion after the accident and still on morphine makes it amazing that he has recovered so well! And just six months ago, he had recently given up using crutches and limped even when walking slowly!!!! Like the other 8th graders on the team (most of the team!), he plans on wrestling next year at the highly competitive high school level.
We had a priceless moment early on…. Codi is Joshua’s best friend; this year, his family moved to the neighborning town, so he’s on the HAL (Hope-Appleton-Lincolnville) team. Codi’s younger brother (a year younger) is a great fan of Joshua’s, and he brought this sign… WE LOVED IT!!!!!! CRMS is the Camden-Rockport Middle School, 135 is Joshua’s weight class, and JoshWah is how Joshua signs his name sometimes on his MySpace, with an umlaut over the “o” and “W”….
Here are the boys “waiting” (as boys will–mucking around) for the awards ceremony; that’s Paul in the red sweatshirt on the far right toting a goatskin leather bag he has had since Peace Corps in Niger in the early 70s:
And the individual awards… Joshua receives a 4th place finish:
And the boys in his weight class…. the winner receives the flow chart of matches showing the 1st place win:
Joshua’s best friend Codi, on the HAL team this year, came in second in his weight class and at states came in 4th in the state! WAY TO GO CODI!
Then…..the team results. Belfast, whose team is a combination of three middle schools in/near Belfast, won. Camden-Rockport came in SECOND in the region! WOOOHOOO! Here the boys are hoisting their trophy to the happiness of one and all:
Joshua’s girlfriend Kristina came up to regionals with Eli and me. She doesn’t like getting her picture taken, so I snuck this one with the zoom:
I also got one with her face, but the second shot, when she realized I was taking pictures is so much more typical and kinda funny that I’m posting that one instead:
And here’s Joshua with his one-man cheering squad, Nick, brother and best friend Codi, Kristina, and Codi’s mom (white shirt) and step dad John (walking towards the group upper left):
All in all it was a wonderful season. The boys on the CRMS and HAL teams got to practice together this past week; they’ll all be on the same high school team next year and were cheering each other on at the meet (as long as the opponent wasn’t someone on their own team!). It’s a wonderful thing…. the five towns are all kind of “Us”. It’s good to be from a small town, and it’s good to live in Maine. As the saying goes, Maine is “the way life ought to be!”