The Ecstasy and the Agony...

Well, it was a good and bad weekend all in one. I spent the weekend in Atlantic City watching the New Jersey state wrestling championships. VERY BIG thanks go out to Susan for watching the kids all weekend while I was out 'with the boys' watching the best sport in the world in one of the best wrestling states in the country.

PS - nice place to go if you visit AC...http://www.rira.com/locations/atlanticcity/menu.php

OK, so how could that be bad you ask? Well, all in all the shore area (our region consisting of schools from Monmouth and Ocean County) came home with 28 place winners in only 14 weight classes, averaging 2 out of every weight class. This included 5 weight classes where our region took 3 out of 8 places. In total , we crowned 5 state champions and 7 second place finishes.
http://shoreconferenceteams.oceanwrestling.com/... scroll down and check out the weights.. .shore area wrestlers are in bold.

Another good article.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/SPORTS/703060425/1002
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070305/SPORTS/70305004/1002


The Ecstasy - Frank Molinaro wins third straight NJ state title

So, again, you ask how can this possible have been a bad weekend? Well, our local high school which we support (and I run the clock and announcing for all matches) is Southern Regional. And if you notice, we had a state champ ourselves and 2 second place finishes. However, the young man at 145 pounds, Luke Lanno, was completely robbed of his state title. I am a very strong believer in NOT blaming officials for a person's or team's loss.. if you feel leave your victory in someone eles's hands, you did not do enough to win. With that being said, the official blew this one BIG TIME. Luke did everything right to win the match; I can not think of more that he could have done to win. So, needless to say, it was a very bittersweet weekend.

The agony... Luke Lanno following his heart-breaking and completely innapropriate loss...

http://www.nj.com/hssports/wrestling/... click on specific weights if you would like to see clips of the matches... 140, 145, 215 were Southern guys.

OK... enough about that for now. Unfortunately wrestling season has ended and I mus tnow find something new to fill my time. I suppose getting the paperwork together and house ready for Cooper is a good diversion :-) Hopefully I will be able to get a post soon indicating that we have received our legal papers so we can get US government approval for Cooper to come home.

Heading out for now... thanks for joining me on the soap box tonight.

Scott