Gilmore's Take: Disney Duals

Now that we have been back for a couple days, and I have had some time to reflect on our Disney trip I can not describe how proud I am of these guys. This group was made up of 4 middle schoolers, 8 freshman, 1 sophomore and 3 juniors. This group of guys have worked out since March with a goal of competing at this national tournament. In our preparation for the duals we lifted 4 days a week and wrestled twice a week. We also competed in 3 different dual meet tournaments and attended a couple camps. By the time we loaded the bus we were physically prepared to Wrestle. The only question was how mentally ready they were for a national tournament. After our 1st day of competition it was clear that most of our guys were a little over whelmed, we just were not competing like we are capable of. After a very persuasive speech from all the coaches and a very fun night at Old Town the guys started to relax. From that point on we started wrestling better, and as the days grew so did our intensity. By the end of the tournament we were beating teams that would have best us earlier in the tournament.   

   On the last day of the tournament we were all beat up and tired, and our last team forfeited to us. We had the opportunity to walk away and leave on an easy finish. We didn't travel almost 900 miles to get a free ride, so I found us an extra match. This in my opinion was the most important match of the tournament. This match would truly test our mental toughness. The big question was could we mentally compete against a very tough team after we were already told we were done and after being sore from 4 days of competition. To my surprise we stepped up to the challenge and wrestled our best match of the year. That one match summed up everything we have be teaching these guys all season. We learned how to fight when we were beat up. We learned to fight when we were tired. We learned to fight when things weren't going our way. And we learned that we can break our opponents when we have the will to fight and they don't. We became a better team right there and then.  Champions do what they don't want to do when they don't want to do it. On that day we became champions. I am very proud of everyone. We left Disney a better team than we entered.