The annual Holtville wrestling tournament, set in the tiny town in Imperial Valley and taking place over the last Friday and Saturday of the month, is a full-immersion experience--in the sport, as well as in the camaraderie and friendship that characterize the sport.
I jumped on again this year for the third year in a row. Here, I, a 6'5" former basketball and baseball player, stick out wandering among the muscular, Lilliputian student athletes and their coaches.
As a result, a lot of jokes come up about height: like the one from Juan Sanchez, assistant coach for La Jolla High, who said at dinner when the subject came up, "I was a boy. I still am a boy." When his girl friend's son, of elementary school age, protested, saying, "But you're grown up," Juan explained no, he meant in physical stature.
* * *
A young girl, whose mother was working the tournament as a volunteer, and her sister and friends were playing outside the Hilltop High gym, around back on day one of the tourney. She looked around at all the wrestlers on mats laid out on the outdoor basketball courts, lounging as they waited for their bouts, and asked, "Why are they all laying down?"
I thought it was a pretty logical query for a young person to ask. Time at an all-day or all-weekend meet can look a bit like Woodstock revisited.
No comments:
Post a Comment