Parents and wrestlers:
Great practice on Monday night! We saw wrestlers showing super energy in learning the basics of bottom position, and in working on one of the best escapes out there, the inside standup. We also saw a lot of positive attitude and sportsmanship among the wrestlers. Great job!
I have a few information items for you:
1. Holiday practice schedule: We will be having the "Building Basics" practice on Monday the 22nd and Monday the 29th, as normally scheduled. Our normal Wednesday "Experienced" practice will be bumped to Tuesday, the 23rd (Tues, the 30th is not possible due to a UVa men's basketball game). Because the Thursday "live wrestling" practice falls directly on the holidays, we are bumping those to Fridays, the 26th and Jan 2. So, for the week of Christmas, our practice schedule will be Monday, Tuesday, Friday, all starting at 6 p.m. as usual. For New Year's week, Monday and Friday. Following that, we will resume our normal Monday, Wednesday, Thursday schedule.
2. Remember, we have no practice tomorrow (Thursday) night, due to the U.Va. Men's Basketball game. Of course, tonight we will be having our usual "Experienced" practice.
3. Our schedule of competition is coming together! We hope to finish nailing this down with the other wrestling clubs in the next couple of weeks. For now, we want to confirm what we announced in the past couple of practices – we have a tri-meet on January 4 against Greene County and Orange County, at 2 p.m. at Orange County. This is for both our elementary school and our middle school wrestlers. In addition, middle school wrestlers will have a tri-meet on January 6 in Waynesboro against Kate Collins MS and Maury River MS. We also have a good number of matches tentatively scheduled throughout January and February against teams such as Powhatan, Fork Union Military Academy, Covenant, Wilson Memorial (in Fishersville) and the Young Warriors (also in Augusta County). When we finish nailing those down, we will let you know, and post that information on our website. We also will try to identify one or more open tournaments for our wrestlers.
Regarding competition, as I mentioned in our first practice, wrestlers are not obligated to compete in matches. Certainly, both experienced wrestlers and beginners are encouraged to compete. Most wrestlers really enjoy the competition and learn a great deal from it. But at the same time, wrestlers who do not yet feel comfortable competing will not be pressured to wrestle, at all. As a club program, we want to teach kids both a high level of technique and a love of the sport. Whether that means getting a kid as many matches as we can, or no matches at all until he feels ready, then we coaches will be supportive of that. I will try to talk more about competition at next Monday's practice, when I know we will have more of our beginners there.
4. Your U.Va. wrestling team comes back to Charlottesville for a home meet against Duke on January 16, and against Pittsburgh at January 25. Come on out and support our team! These guys are amazing athletes, and the wrestling skill level is superb. Also, U.Va.'s own Nick Sulzer, currently ranked #2 in the country at his weight class and sporting a 10-0 record this year so far, was just named the ACC Wrestler of the Week! If you see him at Onesty Hall tonight or during one of our other practices, make sure to go up and congratulate him. He is a great young man and has been a summer camp counselor for several guys on our team.
5. Several of you have asked me about bringing your wrestlers to local high school wrestling matches. There will be a big HS wrestling tournament just over the mountain at Stuarts Draft HS this Friday evening andSaturday. I know that Coach Mulcahy's Western Albemarle HS wrestling team will be there, with a number of CWC-trained wrestlers on it. I have just heard that there will be 15 teams there from as far as Georgia on five mats, so it's a great opportunity to see what the next level looks like.
Thanks, everybody.
-John
John E. Davidson
