Pigs is Pigs, Part 3

(David) My oldest son, Nate, took 4th place in Ohio's Northwest District wrestling tournament last weekend--which means he's one of sixteen Division 3 189 pounders to wrestle for the state championship at Ohio State's Schottenstein Center this weekend. Nate won his first two matches, took a fall in the second period of his third match to the eventual district champion, won his fourth match and lost his final match for third place on points.

I don't know of a better sport for developing character in young men than wrestling. Of course, Nathan's coach, Mario, is a real man of God who loves him like a son. In another setting wrestling might not be as powerfully formative as it's proven for Nathan. Personally, I'd love to see PCA churches more eager to develop biddy wrestling programs than art shows for community outreach--though I suspect such an approach would appear dismally lowbrow, even, horrors, baptistic, to many in the PCA.

In the first picture Nathan's wrestling for a place in the state tournament. He wins this match.

In the second and third pictures, Nathan's wrestling for third place--a match he eventually loses.

In the final picture, Nate's resting having just won a place in the state tournament. To his left is his youngest brother, Isaiah, who knelt in his corner with the coaches each match.

Comments

[David Wegener]

David- But a biddy wrestling program would conflict with choir practice. Baptistic? Yes. Lowbrow? Yes. But beyond that, how about just plain wrong. Who do you think you are?

DW

[Carole]

Ah, David Wegener, methinks thou art treading on dangerous ground. WATCH IT! :) Is your electricity any more reliable yet? We miss you!

[Andy Dollahite]

I think wrestlers are some of the best conditioned athletes one is likely to find. You should be very proud of your son. Of course, as a football coach, I tend to favor it as the ultimate sport for teaching young men to train their bodies and minds to work cooperatively towards an objective. It really is full contact chess. It may sound strange to some, but eleven men working to pound a small leather ball a few feet can both build and reveal real character. Congrats again to your family.

[Rebecca Nugent]

Congratulations, Nate. Both of my brothers wrestled from the time they were six up through high school, and my dad was a coach for quite some time. I know how hard this sport is- it's only you on the mat (on your side, anyway)...no offensive line to blame, no defenders to pass the buck to. And making weight isn't always fun, either! So, a big congratulations- quite an accomplishment.

[Rebecca Nugent]

Oh, and I remember the mantra among the wrestlers:

"Girls play volleyball,
Boys play basketball...
...and MEN wrestle."

[barlow]

Check out Steve Dernlan - he agrees with you about wrestling and has been trying to get similar character formation wrestling into at least one school here in St. Louis. He and his brothers were all wrestlers from very young.

[David Bayly]

I did a search on Steve, Barlow. He comes from what appears to be a legendary Ohio wrestling family. He was a two-time state champion and his brothers the same after him. I wonder if he knows Mark Kerr, a former Ohio state champion from Waite whose brother was a neighbor and a friend.

If you see Steve, mention to him that I saw a 171-pounder wrestle at districts who Brakeman says is an unprecedented prodigy in his 50 years of covering wrestling. "Nothing else even comes close," Brakeman says of the kid. He's a freshman who won Iron Man, went undefeated in his freshman season, defeated two previous state champs during the season, and now has rolled through sectionals and districts without breaking a sweat. It was incredible to watch.

I do hope Steve is able to promote a wrestling program in the school he's working on. With a former wrestler of his calibre willing to help, the school would be crazy not to go for it.

David

[David Bayly]

Dear Andy and Rebecca,

Thank you for your kind words. I'll make sure Nate reads them. Where do you coach, Andy?

David

[Ken Patrick]

Congratulations to Nate! Making the state tournament in Ohio wrestling is akin to your favorite NCAA team making the Final Four - and generates as much excitement within wrestling families.

For another inspirational Ohio wrestling story worthy of the Baylyblog, check out this link to wrestler from southwestern Ohio near Cincinnati.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080225/SPT0301/802250382/

(Sorry about the address - I'm not sure how to link to other sites in this post.)

Barlow - Glad to see a reference to the Dernlan family; they are indeed wrestling royalty in Ohio, and, after a quick search, I'm pleasantly surprised to see Steve in the PCA. Any chance of passing along his website/email address to me? Perhaps offline if need be? We taught together at a Christian high school about 10 years ago when neither of us were in the PCA.

Ken

[David Wegener]

Dear Carole:

I love you and David and I always will, but ...

Electricity is worse than ever. Power cuts in southern Africa are massive. In South Africa, it is even possible that they won't be able to host the World Cup in 2010.

It is spawning some funny jokes, however. Gotta laugh or you cry.

With feet solidly planted on dangerous ground,

DW

[Justin Hayes]

I had the privilege of Assistant coaching under Steve Dernlan for several years when he was at Dayton Christian. The Dernlans are wrestling royalty with 10 individual State Championships in their family (Jeff 2, Steve 2, Matt 3, and Tim 3). I went on to take over at DC after Steve's departure until 2006. Any success we had can be directly attributed to the technique I learned from Steve (and Tim).

More noteworthy, it was Steve and Tim who first introduced me to a Covenant perspective as they were working it out in their own lives, planting seeds which I did not know had been planted until much later.

It is encouraging to read this, I can look back and see that wrestling was one of the primary catalysts for growth in my life. Truly a great sport.

[Rob]

I was raised in Arkansas, so I thought wrestling was WWF(WWE) until I was about 22. Congrats to your son.

[Bike Bubba]

My journey to the Savior started in wrestling practice--a believing coach had us pray after each practice (in gov't school no less), and it was a huge blessing. Sadly, I quit wrestling due to a decidedly less blessed atmosphere in high school.

[David Bayly]

There's a successful coach in public school south of Toledo who is a strong Christian. I learned he's a Christian as a result of seeing him lead his team in prayer at a sectional tournament. He's a great coach, a former wrestler himself and a guy who still wrestles in senior tournaments.

It's my humble opinion that wrestling is king of sports when it comes to character formation. (My son's coach, Mario, nominates cross country for addition to the list...)

I remember my friend, Ted Carlson, telling me as a Wheaton wrestler that the greatest Christian influence on Wheaton College's campus was the man who for many years was Wheaton's wrestling coach--Pete (or "Bubba", if memory serves me right) Willson.

[David Wegener]

Dear David:

Jim Elliot was a wrestler at Wheaton.

DW

[Andy Dollahite]

David,

I teach and coach at Immanuel Christian School in Reedley, CA.

Not that I'm interested in any silly debates, but wouldn't you agree that a team sport is more analogous to the working of the Church, and to life generally, than an individual sport? I realize that sports like wrestling and cross-country are scored as team sports, but each man does his job rather separated from the others. Of course, now that I think about it, there are plenty of situations in life where we work apart from others, and yet our cumulative efforts are what "matters." Again, I'm not picking any fights... just curious about your humble opinion of why wrestling is "king."

[Bike Bubba]

Well, while partial to cross country myself (running or skiing), it's wrestling that Paul uses as an analogy for the Christian life--OK, and the author of Hebrews and Paul also use running as an analogy. So to get a feel for what Paul's getting at, our "bowdlerized Pancreation" (sp?) is probably as good as anything, no?

But come to think of it, were there any team games (sport technically means combat/blood sport; boxing, wrestling, hunting, etc..) at the time the Scriptures were written? I'm drawing a blank.