Re-Visiting the "Old World"

On Saturday afternoon, after attending to political, professional, and family commitments, I realized it was 2 pm. I realized that at 3 pm over at the Easton Middle School, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference was having their "Day of Champions" wrestling dual meets. I decided it would be good to catch a match for an hour or two. I got there just in time for the 3 pm "finals" session, with three matches going on at once- Easton and Parkland, Liberty and Emmaus, and the championship between Nazareth and Bethlehem Catholic. I had a few takeaways-

1. Bethlehem Catholic is really, really good. I get that they have some unfair advantages as a non-public school, and I get that people don't like them for that and other reasons, but those kids are really good. They have some serious talents, and it is always more fun to watch people who are good at what they do.
2. Easton and Parkland wrestled to an old-school tie, but criteria H gave Easton the 29-29 win. What is criteria H, you ask? No one in the gym knew, to be honest. About 30 minutes after the match ended, we learned that Easton won on the account of scoring the first point in more bouts than Parkland did. In other words, the teams won the same number of bouts, falls, technical falls, major decisions, and probably takedowns, back points, and some other criteria too. When it's that close, I'm not sure what the point of awarding a win is, unless it's for a championship. 
3. Lehigh Valley wrestling is almost back. I know, we've heard in recent years about how the western part of the state, or the central part of the state for that matter, has caught and passed the locals. I think when they get to Hershey this year, you will see several wrestlers from Bethlehem Catholic, Nazareth, Easton, Liberty, Northampton, and Parkland place very high in the tournament. I believe Bethlehem Catholic will win the state duals as well. I get that it's maybe not where it was fifteen years ago, but the kids currently wrestling locally are really good.

Last year I went to just one wrestling match all season, a college match between Penn State and Rutgers. This was my third Easton match this season. I'm glad i'm getting back to some matches this year. My last match was in 2001 (!), or 15 years ago this month. While life does go on, my time on the mats was fun, and did have a lot of molding me into the person I am today. Being back around the sport I competed in for eleven years is entertaining, and I enjoy both reminiscing in the past and enjoying the competition today.