Supporting Sporting.

My life here in my small town is intertwined with the lives of many other people, but above all others there is my family. Here I live in a space shared with my big brother a few feet from the back door of my parents' home - which is where they and my two youngest brothers live. These are the high school brothers. Their lives revolve around the fact that they are in high school and everything that becomes entwined with that.

Today's example of this would be my dear baby brother's wrestling career.

Here he is.

I still quite vividly remember the first moment I met Zachary and it was love at first site.

He is quite patient and kind.

He is also the most stubborn person I know.

By now you have figured out that he is quite tall and quite gangly.

Zachary is a freshman. But being that he is the only team member to fill his weight bracket of 170 (or something close) he wrestles Varsity.

Zac wrestles seniors, captains, and fifth in the state champions. Being that he is still growing this proves quite difficult.

At first he was pinned, a lot.

But, recently, he lost by points (wrestling has a point system - I know very interesting and surprising), and now those points become less and less.

Zac knows that there is very minimal chance that he can beat these upperclassmen. They have experience and muscle mass on him, but after every loss he learns something, gets back on the mat, and keeps going.

Today, was the Norther Lakes Conference meet.

He re-wrestled the seniors, captains, and fifth in the state champions.

This time he kept them going for all three periods.

His long legs kept their cradle holds at bay (look at me using the lingo), his incredible flexibility rid him of some tight spots, and he stayed positive.

I sat in the bleachers with my brothers and father, yelled a little and cheered him on. We were so proud of him. I takes a lot of guts to go up against experience and strength and still come back.

But of course we know next year he will be stronger and even more stubborn.