On Friday as I was unpacking the school folders, there was a 1/2 sheet flier for the Racine Wrestling Club. I passively handed the flier over to Brian to see what he said. He didn't say anything, but spent time over the weekend watching and showing Charlie YouTube videos of kids wrestling. I thought it was very cute!
Monday morning rolls around and he lets me know that he and Charlie were going to the enrollment that evening and checking it out. Cool I thought. So after Brian gets home Monday evening he sends Charlie upstairs to change into some sweatpants and asks me if he has any clean tennies. I said yes, I just bought him new shoes yesterday, he's only worn them once and there's been no mud or anything. Brian says, he needs clean shoes and proceeds to take his old tennies and carefully clean the bottoms of them at the sink. Going so far as to take the tip of a knife to pick out any stray pebbles. (of course I think this is crazy, but I have no frame of reference here). So Charlie comes downstairs and I insanely attempt to put the clean shoes on him, what was I thinking? When expressing my extreme confusion to what is going on Brian tells me that shoes going on the wrestling mat have to be perfectly clean and only for the mat. I didn't even know they wore shoes while wrestling!
So now it unfolds, ever so slowly for me, a person who knows nothing of wrestling (my high school didn't have it). I get a text about 30 minutes later. The high school gym is pandemonium, over 100 kids show up and there's only 2 coaches and seems very unorganized. He and Charlie end up coming home fairly soon after that. He explained that not only was it a zoo, but they only had one mat and then a piecemeal partial mat and he was completely unimpressed.
Brian wasn't phased though, he immediately heads to the computer to research other area clubs trying to find something that would meet expectations. He finds a club in Oak Creek and is immediately excited. There is still 2 coaches but they strongly encourage parental involvement, especially those parents who have wrestled before to act as a kind of assistant coach. They are very strict with attire, shoe cleanliness, etc. So they're headed out again tonight to check out this club.
This is all foreign territory to me and I seem to have a bit of an learning curve. I'm excited about this possible passing of the torch of sorts between father and son. Now we just need to convince Charlie that he will not be rubber band catapulting himself off the top rope across a ring to tackle someone, as is his current vision.
I do not on any level get or understand wrestling, so I immediately threw that piece of paper away and didn't even bother to mention it to Keith because if Jackson can't control a freak out when someone kicks away a soccer ball, I figured someone pinning his body down on a mat was completely out of the question.
ReplyDeleteAnd when Brian called and asked Keith if he'd be interested in taking Jackson, I laughed hysterically at the idea since Cub Scouts seem to stress Keith out a bit.
But he is actually semi-considering it. Who knows, maaaaaybe J will do okay? Charlie seems perfect for it though! He's got the body type right?
We'll see. It wouldn't have been on my radar either, except Brian wrestled all through high school. I think C & B are similar build as kids, they wrestle by weight class. I think Brian wrestled something like 76 lbs. as a freshman!
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