Personal Narrative Essay: My First And Last Year Of Wrestling

I thought he was going to rip my whole body apart and slap me around on the mat. I knew that wasn't the right way to think going into a match so I kept telling myself that I would win. "Petro-Risner, Mayberry-Hotchkiss, mat 4," said the announcer. With my legs wobbling arms tingling and heart pumping away, I stepped out onto the mat. The referee got ready, and there it was, the whistle. I sat there crouched down, ready to shoot in for the first take down, but for some reason I couldn't. We tied up head to head. I could feel his strength by his tight grip. We separated and I suddenly got a big burst of adrenaline. Boom, I shot in at his legs and two points went to me with the first take down. After that take down, everything I thought before was gone. I wasn't afraid of this kid. I was just letting myself think I was. I knew that I was not going to lose this match. When the clock ran out in the third period, the score was 9-8 in my favor. I did it. I defeated Jeff Petro in a tough 6 minutes of wrestling. It was Probably the toughest match I've ever had to wrestle.

I stumbled awkwardly as I held the door open behind one of my friends. Walking into a large matted room filled with weight benches, large football players, and screaming coaches, I acted as if I knew the ropes of everything, as that was the key to success. I joined the tiny group of much smaller athletes huddled in the corner, separating themselves clearly from the football side of the room. This was my first day of wrestling practice. I had no idea what to expect, no idea how it would challenge me, and I was only there because I heard it was hard and I wanted to push myself. What would come to happen in the next several weeks would cause my head to spin, body to be broken, and would change my entire life mentality forever.

When I qualified for the AAU State wrestling tournament I never thought I would have done so well. Being in 8th grade and it being my last year to go to AAU State I put in the hard work and qualified for AAU State and I was overjoyed with happiness. For the next 2 weeks, I practice my heart out trying to get better for AAU. The day that wrestling starts the older group doesn’t wrestle till 4, so we went to the mall till 12 then Wells Fargo. The team started to warm up around 3:30 and I was one the first matches up. I won my first match with a pin and my second with the 11-3 win. My third match was against the kid that won the tournament and I lost to him 2-5.

Weighing one hundred and six pounds I won the starting spot on varsity, and had a fairly successful freshman season. Unfortunately, my season did not end in the manner I had hoped, so I decided to continue my high school wrestling career for another year. The summer following my freshman year I decided that if I was going to stick with wrestling I should invest time into developing my lost skills from my days of wrestling as a child, and strive to win a state title as a sophomore. My sophomore year was an important year for my family, since it would be my brothers last

It was my freshman year in high school. We had a pretty good wrestling team and we made it to the regional duals and the four best teams in our district were there and the team who has made it to state wrestling the past three years and we had to beat all three teams in order to make it to state which was going to be difficult.

Jude shouted, “Fox!” Everyone in wrestling calls me by my last name, so I didn’t think much of it. I figured he was greeting me, so I nodded my head, as if I was saying, “Sup?”

Next, I wrestled the kid from Jeff West, Hunter Thelen. We both started circling and then I tripped over my feet. He came running at me, he pushed me over then I reversed it and then I got him on his back and he was done by that point. I had him on his back for about five seconds. Then he gave up and I pinned him for the victory.

I looked through the corner of my eye seeing everyone saying to be on top so I did. When the whistle blew I chopped my opponents arm and he fell. I tried to get a half Nelson in but he got out before I was able to fully get it and that's where it went bad. My opponent put a counter in and put me in a half Nelson. I was so surprised because it was quick and clean. I put my shoulders up and stayed up not being able to pin and I slipped away. When I stood my opponent grabbed my leg but this was just what I need. I hooked my arm around his arm and twisted both of us falling but I got up first and tried to put a half Nelson in. The whistle blew.

The sun was shining brightly and the snow was melting outside on a beautiful March afternoon. Inside the Marian High School Wrestling room was an entirely different picture. Inside the room there was an intense off-season workout going on. Afterwards, the wrestlers and coaches all sat down, dripping in sweat, and began joking about the wrestlers who chose not to show up to the off-season workouts. My teammates, coaches, and I began making a list of the laziest wrestlers on our team. Jokingly, I asked my coach, “Where am I on that list?” he looked at me with a straight face and said, “Trust me Justin; you are nowhere close to being on that list.”

The sport of wrestling has been going on for thousands of years. Our earliest ancestors have been known to play the sport. Back in the caveman times in France the drawings have showed us two men grappling and fighting (College Sports). This is showing the two men wrestling. Wrestling to me has been the toughest sport I have had to participate in so far in my athletic career.

Nerves and the adrenaline feeling rushed through my body like a jet going sonic boom ripping through the air. I was on a school bus headed to a wrestling meet in York, Nebraska on a cold winter day in December. I figured my wrestling meet would be like all the other wrestling meets in the past, win most, lose a few. Never really thought this meet would be the final meet for the season. This meet would change my way of thinking towards wrestling and affect my confidence level.

I started off young when I began to like wrestling. I would wrestle with my giant doll of the WWE wrestler Randy Savage. My parents would see me all around the house wrestling with that doll, and everyday they knew I was going to wrestle. As soon as middle school cam along I joined, I wasn’t the best in those years but I still tried my hardest. Then highschool came along, my skill from middle to high school grew tremendously. In 2006, I graduated with three district Championships and two regional Championship titles.

One day my dad called me out to the garage, somehow I knew exactly what he wanted. My older brother surprisingly graduated and was off to start his life in the marine corps, which meant it was my turn to step up and be my dad’s helper. My dad asked, “ Wyatt, can you assist me?” He then told me what we were going to be doing. He said, “ I’m going to have you cutting pieces of wood for the frame of the garage.” We were adding a lean to on the garage. After he showed me how we were started, the task was easy: he offered me a template board that he had already cut the angle out on and I just had to line the board up with the new ones, trace along the edge, then cut it with a circular saw.

Although wrestling is a little bit confusing for me at first, someone have me an opportunity to dig a little bit deeper about wrestling. Having a friend that is part of a wrestling team, it opened me a door to watch wrestling tryouts and practices. It made me excited and nervous at the same time. I was excited because I could watch live wrestling practice but nervous because I did not know what to expect being in the same room as the wrestlers. Being in the room where I can actually see the wrestlers face to face is totally different than watching them on screens. It was tougher and more intense. I can see the determination in their faces they have just to be part of them team. They were like lions that is ready to attack whoever came near

I was walking down the sidewalk with my friend Manny then I saw a grasshopper eating a square slice of bologna with pickle juice on it and also it had a trapezoid shaped sausage then Manny screamed “ look at that grasshopper “ .