Reflection on the NAIA National Tournament

The NAIA National Wrestling Tournament was a much anticipated new experience for HLG wrestlers. This year the five wrestlers who qualified for the national tournament were Kasey Cates, Tommy Pickens, Josh Smith, Jobi Hambrick, and Nathan Downs. All, with the exception of Josh Smith, competed in the National Tournament. Smith withdrew from the national tournament because of personal reasons. We entered the national tournament very banged up from the season. Kasey Cates injured his knee right before Christmas Break and it continued to bother him through the national tournament. He even took off much of the month of December to let his knee rest. After qualifying for the national tournament in the last tournament before Christmas Break Tommy Pickens had returned to campus second semester with a desire to be prepared for the National Tournament. But his hopes were dashed when he was diagnosed with having Mono just a week into the second semester. Having my own career cut short as a result of mono, I was pleasantly surprised to see Tommy Pickens have the will to come back from such a terrible sickness. As a coaching staff we did not make Tommy wrestle he wrestled because he had a will to compete. Jobi Hambrick struggled throughout the season with minor injuries as any wrestler would struggle. Towards the end of the season and especially in the consolations finals of our Central Regional Tournament Jobi injured his shoulder. Nathan Downs was thrown in the last tournament before Christmas Break and landed head first on the mat. As a result of the impact Nathan had nagging pain in his neck and shoulder region of his back. Nathan did visit the doctors and had them check it out and they told him that the injury was not serious but he would continue to have pain throughout the rest of the season until he healed completely. These injuries are not uncommon to our sport of wrestling although it is disappointing when the injuries do impact virtually every wrestler we had qualified for the national tournament. I do not bring up these injuries to make excuses for a poor performance at the national tournament but instead to highlight how these wrestlers worked through tough circumstances and continued to compete even thought they knew they were at a disadvantage. It was because of that spirit of competition I believe these wrestlers have the potential to accomplish even greater things in years to come. If anyone wants to see the individual results of the tournament follow this link. Two matches I want to highlight from the tournament were matches that Kasey Cates and Nathan Downs wrestled. Cates first match of the tournament was against a tough wrestler from MO Baptist who Casey had previously defeated twice in the regular season. The fact that he was able to stay mentally focused and defeat him a third time is very commendable. The highlight of that match was one in which no score was awarded as Casey completed the nicest lateral throw of his career. I think it is the only one that I have ever seen him do in a match. Unfortunetly the throw was completed out of bounds. Nathan Downs’s record in the National Tournament does not show the improvement on the season from the beginning to the end. Nathan wrestled Junior Robbie Hicklin from Lindenwood University who had pinned him at the Lindenwood Open at our first tournament of the season. Hicklin went on and claimed 3rd place. It was apparent that Downs had his work cut out for him at the national tournament having to once again face Hicklin. Downs demonstrated throughout the match that he had improved tremendously throughout the season. At one point in the match Downs had Hicklin flat on his back in a defensive pin situation which the official clearly missed. By the end of the match Downs’ conditioning showed as Hicklin was tiring. Even though Downs still lost the match he showed signs of great improvement over his previous performance against the same tough opponent. The final highlight of our trip to the National Tournament was watching Zach Fish’s participation in the Champions of Character wrestling clinic. Fish was honored with the nomination of HLG’s representative for Champions of Character. There were about 60 wrestlers who participated in this special wrestling clinic hosted free of charge for Oklahoma City area high school wrestling programs. After our return from Oklahoma City the wrestlers all went their separate ways as they had the opportunity to go on to their spring break.