Six Dexter athletes compete in first youth wrestling tournament

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

With heart and dedication six Dexter athletes competed in their first sanctioned tournament on March 1, 2015. The AAU Missouri State wrestling championships, that was held in St. Charles MO. To youth wrestlers all over the state this event is considered to be "The Big Show". There were over five hundred wrestlers competing on that day of the event and amongst them was six young boys from Dexter. As they walked into one of the biggest gyms they've ever seen in their lives, their eyes got big with excitement . As the gym started to fill with people and the wrestlers began warming up our small town boys felt nervous, as did the coaches and parents. These young men have only just begun wrestling kids from other towns in the bootheel. They are only used to wrestling their piers, kids they go to school with. They had never wrestled at this level of competition before and it was seeming to appear a bit overwhelming. But as the matches began and the boys stepped on the mat they knew what to do. All the practices and all their hard work was paying off. My coaching motto has always been "Practice Hard - Win Easy" and win is what they was doing. The butterflies were long gone as the boys wrestled everything practiced just came flowing naturally. As the day went on and the competition got steeper it dawned on me that each and every one of our wrestlers were still advancing. By the time it was all said and done each one of our Dexter boys had placed at State. As the awards were being presented and each bracket of wrestlers took their turns stepping up on the podium, I stood there watching with an overwhelming feeling of pride. It was like as if these boys were my own children. Tears of joy ran as the sons of Dexter was receiving their medals.

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