Enzo Wrestles a Cougar

Alternate title: Refuse to Lose….Literally

Earlier this week, we took Enzo to his second wrestling ‘Fun Night’, which is an informal tournament-type thing, where a few of the local programs get together (Camden-Rockport, Belfast, Bucksport), and the kids have a few matches each. They weigh the kids in, write their weight and age on their wrists (which is one of the highlights for Enzo – he goes around for days afterwards (it’s permanent marker) showing everyone that he’s ‘4’ and ‘43’), and then match the kids up based on weight. All in all, there are about 60 kids or more, and it gets to be pretty loud and hectic. They have about 6 or 7 matches going on at the same time, all over the mats, parents and coaches screaming – it’s quite an experience (please note that while I do use my own body English to help Enzo during his match, I do not yell).

The first ‘Fun Night’ did not go very well, and as such Sal & I were a bit nervous that a bad experience in this one could spell the end of Enzo’s budding wrestling career. In the first event, Enzo was matched up with a kid who may have been 6, I’m not positive, but the kid knew more wrestling moves than I do. I won’t say too much about how that match went, but I will say that Enzo spent most of the match with the other kid on top of him.

After that match, Enzo looked a little shell-shocked, and whined that he didn’t want to go to the following practice. We acquiesced, because we didn’t want to push too hard. However, we did push when this next Fun Night came around, because, well, that’s how we are. As one of our kids, you can whine your way out of some things, but not for long. So we thought that we might be making the trip up to Belfast for this second Fun Night, and Enzo would refuse to wrestle, and we’d have to come back home, and post his tiny wrestling shoes and head-gear on eBay.

Enzo ended up wrestling, and doing very well. He was way more aggressive than he had been, and seemed to be having a lot of fun out there. His opponent, because of her animal-print singlet (that’s manspeak for ‘leotard’), had been dubbed ‘The Cougar’ in the previous event by various evil parent on-lookers (ourselves included). She was clearly older than Enzo, and again, more experienced. But Enzo held his own, moving around, attacking aggressively, and employing state-of-the art never-before-seen tactics, such as running behind the ref and using him as a shield (note the refs surprised expressionwhen this happens). Sal & I figured out that because he’s big for his age, Enzo will always be in a situation where he’s up against kids who are older than he is. Truthfully, I think he’s got the right personality for it. And I can’t wait to get him into Pee Wee football.

The video below shows more of the ‘Hey, I’m over here – no, I’m over here!’ moves that Enzo was employing, but he did have many moments where he went right at The Cougar. Anyway, the match is over, and I can’t see the scoreboard from where I am, but it had to have been a one or two point match, and The Cougar wins. At this event, they had blue ribbons for the winner, and red ones for the second place finisher (you can’t say loser, it might damage the kid forever). So this big redneck-looking guy comes out and hands The Cougar her blue ribbon, and offers a red ribbon to Enzo. He looks at it, then up at the guy, then back to the ribbon, but doesn’t reach out and take it, then starts talking to the redneck. And I knew right away what was going on – he didn’t want a red ribbon, he wanted a blue one, and this redneck guy was in for it if he didn’t give Enzo what he wanted. So Enzo stands there pleading his case, and the redneck-guy looks completely bewildered, standing there holding the red ribbon. He doesn’t know what to do. Finally, he walks back to the scoring table and sits down. A moment later, another less-rednecky guy comes out and hands Enzo a blue ribbon, to which Enzo responds by squealing with delight, and running over to show us. Refusing to lose, at its very essence, right there.

After the match is over, we're getting ready to leave, and Enzo says that he has to go tell his 'girl coach' (his main coach is a woman) something, so he walks all the way across the gym to find her. When he comes back a few minutes later, I asked him what he told her - 'I told her that I threw up corn'. Classic.

Enzo had a great practice after this second Fun Night, learning a couple of new moves, plus how to throw balled up pieces of tape against a wall (the practices are kind of loose for the young ones). The next Fun Night is next week, and we just hope that Enzo shows the type of enthusiasm and aggressiveness that he did against The Cougar.