Isaac's going to state!

This past weekend, Tyler, Shelby, Kauzie and I made our way up to Nebraska for one of the busiest, most exciting, and tense weekends of the year for Nebraska wrestling fans. It's known as districts. Not everyone can make it through the weekend with their sanity. And not everyone understands why it is what it is. Districts is a time where all the goals and hard work of a wrestler are put to the test. This meet determines who is going to state.

On Friday, the four of us drove the long 9 hours only to get home at 1:30 in the morning. We woke up about 7:30, got ready and went to Sutton for the second day of competition. My little brother Isaac, a freshman, was ready for the day having only to win the first match to qualify for state. His competitor was a little boy from Sutton. They had faced earlier in the season and finished with the Sutton kid winning by points. We all anticipated the match being one of the closest of the meet because of Isaac's improvement through the season. The minutes before the match made the three Elge/Dees women more nervous then anyone in the gym. Isaac wrestled with heart, strength, wisdom, tenacity, and every other adjective that your can imagine. Isaac ended up only losing by 2 points which left him with the nervousness of knowing that he had to win the next match or be eliminated- he knew that if he didn't win the next one then his season would be over. He ended up dominating that match and finishing 3rd after beating a high plains little boy in the finals. On the way home from the meet Tyler shared that he now knows exactly why wrestling is one of the passions of the Elge family. He was able to see that we are who we are because of wrestling.

We were all so proud of Isaac and his talent- but more then that we were able to see the character of this 15 year old man. He was one of the few who shook hands with those who finised higher then him as a sign that he respected them. There was no ego on the back of Isaac. He showed me how much more character shines then my all-to-quick-to-judge-and-criticize mouth. I learned along with Tyler why wrestling is more then a sport.