Sammy at State!!!

Hey y'all! Sorry nothing's been up here for sooo long! So I'm going to start in the past and move forward :)

For those of you who don't know, my family is very athletic and very competitive. The four of us kids have always been pushed to be tenacious, hard working and to never settle for less than the best. So (this is where I start bragging about my bros) my three brothers have been wrestling since they were 5 or 6 respectively; and I got into volleyball. I'm my brothers' biggest fan and I doubt anyone has been to more wrestling tournaments/meets/duals than me without actually competeing in them. :) My oldest brother, Jordan never won a state title but he got second twice, in college he got 2nd and 8th at NAIA Nationals. Lee won a state title his Freshman year and recieved 6th at NAIA Nationals wrestling for SOU. Sammy is 18 months younger than me and always been one of my closest friends. I haven't missed hardly any of his competitions and very few of his big tournaments.

Okay, BACKGROUND INFO: Sammy's State Record until this year: 6th, 2nd, 2nd. Both his sophomore and junior years he got to the finals and lost by ONE point. Heartbreaking. However, this year, when Sammy reached the finals things were a little different :)

FF>> to Feb. 20-21st: Nial and I and the whole family got to spend the two-day tournament together watching Sam and the team compete at the Tacoma Dome. The State Tournament is called The Mat Classic. They hold it in the Tacoma Dome so they can host all 6 divisions at once (4A-1B and Girls.) Therefore, on day 1 there are 24 mats running simultaneously. Its quite alot to handle! For finals however they just run six mats so the finalist get the respect they deserve. Nial got some great pictures and filmed so I didn't have to. We were all nervous and hopeful for Sam. Being his senior year it was a big deal. He won 8-4. It was tremendous. Quite a cap to his high school career. His high school's team also placed Second overall in the state at the 4A division (biggest in WA), so another tremendous feat.

Next year he will be wrestling at Highline Community College. After a few years there he want to transfer to Boise State and wrestle at the D1 Level- but we'll see. {This last picture was in the Seattle Times. ps. Nial didn't take this one :) }