National High School Coaches Association NHSCA National Duals

We oftentimes find out about our grandson’s sports games, meets, and tournaments after the fact. Over the Memorial Day weekend I got a response to a text from our daughter in law about an entirely different subject.  She said she and our grandson were in Virginia Beach at the National High School Coaches Association National Wrestling Duals. And, he wasn’t observing, he was participating. So I went to the website to find out about the event and if we could track his progress. There is a Flowrestling website that you can actually watch the matches - for a fee, or just enter the site, find the match you are looking for, and watch match progress on a scoreboard. But you need to have an idea about the scheduled time, weight class, name of the team, etc. We were able to catch one of the bouts and it doesn’t last very long and they move quickly to the next one. On top of that there are literally about 100 matches going on at one time. There were thousands of participants from all over the country. Wrestling is a very difficult sport to watch - I grew up on my brother the pitcher playing baseball. Wrestling is quite the sport for learning how to lose gracefully and pretty much you are on your own. Regardless it’s a great experience and there are many other activities our grandson has been exposed to - from mountain climbing to canoeing, baseball and track. That makes for a great all around background and keeps him very busy. It’s fun to see how he is progressing and growing both scholastically and athletically. As long as he keeps being a nice kid and is happy, that’s all we care about. 

Tunnels, Bridges, and a Lot of Water in Virginia

The real reason we drove to Norfolk Virginia was to surprise our grandson and his mother by showing up to watch his state wrestling tournament. It was also our daughter in law’s birthday so we would have an opportunity to catch up and celebrate. We have never been to this end of Virginia - or Seven Cities - so it was a great way to spend the weekend. We have been to Williamsburg and Yorktown, but we never went all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Having grown up near and around water all my life - Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Michigan, and the Potomac River - the area seemed familiar. But I didn’t care for all the combination tunnels and bridges along with the obvious military influence. There were shipbuilding facilities, a huge international port with millions of containers, passenger trains, and noisy aircraft flying overhead. But there was just too much water! We rode along the coast and the Atlantic Ocean which seemed really spooky observing it at night from eleven stories above. A statue of Neptune shone in the night sky. I’m sure the place looks different in the summer months. I’m glad we went but have a feeling we won’t be going again - unless there is a really good reason.