Saturday at District 1 North, I saw great examples of Sportsmenship.

I want to personally thank a young a wrestler who helped my 72 year old uncle after he tripped and broke his Arm. The young wrestler quickly asked my uncle if he needed assistance and then rapidly provided him with his own personal pillow and got some adult help. Thank you to all of the volunteers that put on the great Wrestling this weekend.
I owe some kid a pillow.


Tom Core

I ditto what TomCore said. From my multiple vantage points, at Mats 9, 10, and over at 11 I saw some of the best wrestling and sportmanship that I've seen all year. The injured wrestlers, which were several, were responded to quickly and with a reasonable amount of precautionary treatment. I hope all the injured kids are doing OK. "Bravo" to all the spectators, wrestlers, and spectators who applauded each wounded warrior as they left the building.
I'm sure like all tournaments problems and "issues" occurred at Holton.....however, I would say this was one of the best this year.

In distict 1 on the other hand I saw several kids and parents swear like it was nothing! How is it that a wrestler is allowed to swear right on the mat loud enough for me to hear on the sidelines and he not get disqualified? Cursing should not be allowed! Once again it hurts the image of the sport! Don't we have enough idiods tackling kids on the mat without having all the cursing? People who are on the outside looking in don't get a very good picture of our sport!

The intent behind the post is to acknowledge the great acts of sportsmenship on the wrestling mat and how that translates to life, not to highlight the few negatives.
You have a choice in life, highlight the positives and encourage that behavior, or look for the negatives in life and encourage that behavior.

That is exactlly why I posted what I posted! Haven't you ever heard that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch? Well unfortunatly that is the usally the case! I know that our club in no way tolerates bad sportsmanship! If any of our kids show bad sportsmanship the entire team has to run! Luckily we hardly ever have to!Wrestling is an awesome sport that doesn't get enough good publicity alot because of the unsportsmanlike conduct of a few! I am simply stating that unfortunatly we need to impliment stricter guidlines on these negative incidents because it seems like we see them more and more and it diverts the attention off of the positives of wrestling like hard work, determination, family, ect. In no way am I highlighting the negative in order to encourage that behavior! I am stating that something more needs to be done to discourage the negatives! Especially since a lot of the time the swearing is coming from a parent or coach! More needs to be done about swearing and cursing matside! Good luck this week!

I just want to echo what Tom Core said. Specifically, he was talking about a young kid who had just had a tough match and was trying to get his thoughts together. As he was sitting on the steps one of our adult team members (a 72 year old uncle) broke his arm right near where the kids was sitting. The kid immediately checked if our uncle needed help. When he was told that help was needed he rendered assistance by providing our uncle his pillow and then got an adult.

Now, I don't know about anybody else, but to me this demonstrates the great, intangible qualities that wrestling provides. I don't know how this wrestler ended up placing at the tournament but in the grand scheme of things this kid is a "CHAMPION IN THE GAME OF LIFE!". He put another's concerns ahead of his own. In our club this is what we try to teach our kids by using wrestling as a tool to teach these type of lessons.

To the wrestler that helped our "uncle"....THANK YOU VERY MUCH! You went above and beyond the call of duty. I would like to meet you and thank you in person if given the chance.

To the parents and coaches of the wrestler....You should be very proud. Your son did a wonderful thing and should be rewarded. I would like to thank you in person if given the chance.

I am one of the shortest coaches around. Look for me, I will have a Spartan wrestling shirt on.

The original intent was to highlight the good things that happen at these tournaments. If you feel the need to be negative, please start another thread.

Shawn Budke
Head Coach
Leavenworth County Spartans

Kudos to that young man!

you are right! We come from a family of basketball players and my children like to wrestle because they love the sport! I love the sport because of the character it builds for life in children! The sense of family is like no other sport!

Great example - that wrestler definately stepped up to the moment and put someone else above himself.

That is outstanding! Some of the things we try to teach our young wrestlers are respect and integrity, but also compassion. This young man has all three. It can be very difficult for some of these kids to remember that you can be "all business" on the mat, but you don't have to be that way off. It doesn't make you a lesser wrestler, it makes you better in my opinion.

I think it is also important to remember the ages of these kids. One mistake shouldn't be thrown in their faces. We as adults have a hard time controlling our emotions in the heat of battle. We have to guide through our actions, correct them when they make mistakes, and allow them the opportunity to mature and eventually pass it on, etc.

You are so right firehawk88. We had an incident on Saturday that happened out of excitement, which really hurt another boy's feelings. Our wrestler didn't realize what he did until our coach corrected him matside. The young man was really upset that he hurt the other boy's feelings that he found that boy and apologized to him and his parents. It's a hard lesson to learn, but we are really proud of him for trying to correct what he did. The parents and the boy seemed to appreciate this act as well.

i see a lot of good sportsmanship to i wrestled last weekend and lost to somebody by 1 point and his parents found me and congratulated me on a good match