Wrestling Moms

Yesterday was Mother’s Day which is a nice gesture, but we can’t possibly appreciate all the moms out there in one day. Wrestling moms are truly the best. It’s amazing to look back and think about all the early weekend mornings they didn’t spend in a robe and a cup of coffee, but rather driving early in the winter to sit in a smelly gym on uncomfortable bleachers all day (all while packing/making food). They also have to watch their kids in uncomfortable and vulnerable situations. It’s truly incredible. I think back at my youth and how it “takes a village”. My mom and many others were there to root for you, make you food, carpool and more. I don’t think there are enough thank you’s in the world to properly give the correct amount of gratitude.

Kris McCarthy’s two-finger whistle was an incredible tool. As a kid, it was used to call us home for being out too late or stop us in our tracks from doing something stupid, but it was also used to celebrate. It would ring in a crowded gym when you hit a big move or throughout a baseball field when you hit a dinger. She has five kids with four of them being boys spaced out. She literally had a son in the high school lineup for fourteen consecutive years. That is a lot of cold Michigan winter mornings on the way to tournaments.

This weekend is the World Team Trials for the open weight classes to cement the thirty matchups that determine who will represent the USA at the world championships later this year in Serbia. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone registers late as a surprise or changes weight classes.

Austin Gomez will represent Mexico at the world championships. He announced this weekend that he will not return to NCAA wrestling and focus on making the Olympics. Gomez was banged up his last season at Wisconsin and didn’t fare well at the Pan Am’s, but perhaps he can heal and train for September. His big move style could translate well to freestyle.