My son is/was a HS wrestler. He just finished his senior season. Honestly he likely would not have wrestled senior year if he was not applying to the academies, but it was his choice and he wanted to put everything on the table he could for his applications. He was a competitive wrestler, but certainly was not going to be a state title winner. And there is no doubt cutting weight is hard, it took its toll. He easily could have wrestled the class higher, he would have won the wrestle off every week, but he wrestled his weight class bc that was what was best for the overall team. I worried all season about injury, especially since I wasn’t certain his heart was in this season. But I also watched him lead the team every meet (2 year Captain), besides me there wasn’t another person in the gym that could tell he struggled with the decision. And although I know he was counting the days, he came up from his last pin in tears. The child hasn’t cried since he was 6 or 7 years old. I say all of this to say, the season meant more to him than he realized until it was over. Hindsight he is glad he made the decision to finish wrestling, if he had gotten injured I’m sure we would think differently. I held my breath through the last meet, I just wanted him out in tact.
