A bitter cold winter weekend could only mean one thing, tournament time. A year ago today I didn't even place In this tournament, this year I have a completely different mind set.

An onsite weigh in is weighing in is at the site that the tournament will be held at. Weighing in at 124.8 of pure skin and bones, just making the weight I celebrate with shoving mounds of food into my mouth. Being a wrestler making the weight is half the battle of every match or tournament.

Rolling into the tournament being the 14th seed my first match was a breeze, still nervous and second guessing myself the ref blew the whistle to start the match. Every move going through my head trying to set up the perfect shot noticing my opponent steps hard forward with his left leg I pulled him and executed my crisp single leg sweep, grasping the leg and bringing it up to my chest he tumbles to the mat. Getting the two points for a takedown im up 2-0. Forcing my hand under his I slide a chicken wing in his left arm, running around his head and turning him to his back while driving down with the wing I realized how easy it was to turn somebody like that :34 seconds left in the first period the ref slaps the mat and blows a screeching whistle. Shaking my opponent's hand, All I could think about in my head was that I'm one match closer to the finals. The ref grabs my hand and the clarkston crowd cheering I knew my first step to the top was completed.
   

Being I beat my first kid I advance to wrestle a harder kid. Just so happened that my next match had the second seed in the tournament. Oxfords 125 pounder “Ryan Miller” a ranked wrestler from Oxford high school that is the same age as me and had qualified for the state tournament had the butterflies going crazy in my tummy it felt like a bunch of snakes slithering around my guts almost making me sick. Long enough after my first match I had checked into the second.

All the doubt against me my coach told me the one thing that stayed in my head the entire match saying, “He puts his pants on the same way as everyone else”

My coach was a role model to me I respect him and what he tells me. That being said means to me means that just because this guy is said to be good doesn't mean that I dont have the right to beat him. Before the match I was just thinking about all the hard work put in during the off season all the time spent and the strength built just for times like these.

A hard exhale through the refs chrome whistle started the match. I knew in my head that I had 3, 2 minute periods to prove a point. Looking constantly for a leg to execute and just looking for move after move nothing was showing. Both Ryan and myself are excellent defensive wrestlers. Hand control gives the wrestler advantage it’s like having a head start in a race. With hand control you can do just about anything. After the entire first period was over from all hand fighting and missed shots, I chose bottom.

Being on bottom you have the advantage to either get 2 points for a reversal or 1 point for an escape. I tried exploding in the speed of lightening up a number of times, failing every attempt I sat out on my butt grabbed is leg and rotated right and flipped around the known ”Ryan Miller” leading the match 2-0 I had :27 seconds left in the second period to ride him out and not lose my lead. the second period ends and the third began.

Riding him out the entire 2 minutes, the 14th seed had beaten the 2nd seed in the tournament. The only thing I could think about was how I was looked at now that I made a point showing I can compete with good wrestlers. It was then that I realized my hard off season work gives me a chance in this tournament to go to the top, I had advanced to the 1/4 finals.
   

In the quarter final match I began a hard match soft losing 2-0 again I chose bottom but this time instead of a switch I caught my opponent riding high in the 2nd period and got a reversal the score being 2-2 with :53 seconds left on top I wondered to myself what had worked for me in the past to win matches, the first move that exploded through my head was right in front of my eyes “chicken wing” knowing it had helped me win before I believed if I ran it hard I might have a chance to catch him on his back. Now that I had faith in my move I ran the wing harder than ever before and ended up pinning him with :27 seconds left in the second period. My coach and family complimenting me on not giving up just because I was loosing made me realize that I didn't give up. I was just wrestling my own match. That being it for the first day of the tournament. I was pretty happy to advance to the semi finals.

Ending the night celebrating with juicy homemade burgers with fries I fell asleep into a food coma, and never slept so soundly in my life.

Long enough the next day I was back at the battle field mentally prepared for my match I had a kid from Waterford Kettering high school he was a good wrestler but my mindset then tell me that.

My coach giving me another confidence boosting quote he had told me,“That I've came to far in the tournament to lose now. And to trust the work I put in.”

The ref blew the Whistle screeching like a screech owl and the Match started. Taken down and let up a good amount of times. I was losing 8 to 11 going into the third.

With two minutes left I realized that I've came back from a loss before and beat someone, I was very confident that I could do it again. Now that I was believing in myself I ran a hard chicken wing that I have used before and realized that it had worked, I decided to run it so hard where my goal was either to turn the kid or rip his arm off in the processes. That confidence was just enough to pin him with :53 seconds left, I was in the finals.

Being in the finals and not even placing the year before really made me realize how much I had I improved as a wrestler. All the off season training, all the hard sweat and camps to make every move crisp have finally paid off. I'm wrestling in the Oakland county finals match and I'm convinced that it was through not my wrestling but the hard work in the off season that makes a difference, now that I see the difference I do more and more work to compete at higher levels. The year before the off season training was minimal but this summer was a grind and the results showed Coaches were slightly right. It's not the work that people see, it's the work that nobody knows about that puts people on the podium.

Going into the finals finally wrestling the number one ranked wrestler in the state kinda scared me. Being pinned by the same kid in the previous weeks dual meet. I knew it was gonna be a hard match I was losing in the beginning from the same takedown 4 times 8-4. When I realized what I was doing wrong I started to score points but not even then was it enough to come back from a 8-15 lead he had on me. Seeing the clock strike zero I started to think down on myself for losing.

When I see the progress made, it's actually incredible what I did. I see the change in skill, the change in heart. Working hard in the off season makes you really get mad when you lose, you begin to despise the losing feeling. Mostly because you feel like the time you spent working alone was wasted. When you lose it shouldn't be a downfall it should just be a smack in the face to make you keep working hard and you should move on and learn from your mistake, fix the move practice the move and continue the hard work that nobody knows about, so that next time you will win that big match.