Wednesday was the offical last night, and so for fun, we held an "Alpha Wolf" competition! If at any time someone didn't complete a task in the allotted time, or if someone quit, they were out of the competition. The one left standing at the end would be dubbed the Alpha Wolf!
To start, everyone had to jog for 6 minutes. Then they had to do a round of push ups and sit ups. After that there was a round of 10 timed sprints, followed by a timed plank hold, then 5 sets of leg lifts and flutter kicks. The overhead weight hold wrapped up the competition.
Honestly, I probably would have died if I were doing it. I really enjoyed watching it though! All the parents were cheering from the sidelines, it was awesome! As each event came and went, the crowd of kids dwindled and dwindled. By the end, Anthony was left with 3 other boys doing the overhead weight hold and you could tell all the boys were exhausted, their arms were getting all shaky, haha.
Anthony pulled through though and won the competition! Whoo hoo! Go Anthony!! The Alpha Wolf!! He was so excited and proud of himself! That was HARD work! What a tough boy he is. Proud of you, Anthony!!!
Because it was our last night and all the kids did so awesome, it was decided that they would just play games. No one complained about that!
They started out by playing Sharks and Minnows. In this game, there are a few sharks and they have to catch the minnows as they try to get from one side of the mat to the other. They have to use their wrestling moves to correctly pin the minnows. When a minnow is pinned, they are turned into a shark and then have to help pin the other minnows. The game goes on until there is one minnow left and they are dubbed the winner!
Next they played Pile Up. In this game they are all in a pile in the center cirlce and 1-2 people are left out to start trying to pull people out of the circle. Once someone is pulled out, they have to help pull others out of the circle until only one is left to be the winner. Anthony and Molly decided to be the out people, I died laughing watching them try to pull their friend out....they wound up needing a little help from the coaches. ;)
Lastly, they played Wrestle Ball. In this game there are two teams and each team has to try to get a ball into their opponents box before the rival team does the same! The game goes until a team has scored 5 times. The kids are serious about this game!
After all the fun, just like after every practice, the coaches huddled the kids up to give a final closing to the night. This one in particular was bitter sweet as two of the coaches who work with the kids had to say their goodbyes. They are seniors and graduate this year, so they will not be with us next wrestling season! All the kids were sad and those two will be greatly missed. They have been helping since Anthony started wrestling 4 years ago and they have always been so great with the kids.
We made sure to get them restaurant gift certificates as a thank you and made them cards. The kids wrote messages like, "Thanks for teaching me how to wrestle, I'll miss you!" and Sammy and I made sure to let them know how much we appreciated the time they spent working with the children 2 times a week for the past 4 years during wrestling season. That takes a lot of time, selflessness, and dedication. True role models.
I made sure to get a photo of the group so I can get them each a copy. I told them that they would want this memory to look back on in the future. :) We wish them happy and fruitful futures!
Luckily we get to keep one of the sweet coaches for another few years as he's still got two more years of school left! Definitely the end of an era Wednesday night, but I'm looking forward to next year and seeing what it brings coach wise for the kids!
After our goodbyes and sentiments, it was time to clean up the wrestling space.You know the season is officially complete when everyone has the chore of rolling up the wrestling mats. Even the little ones helped!
Until next season!
With love,
Mama Hauck
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