Love Wins In Wrestling

During my Sophomore year at Messiah College, myself and my close friend and teammate, Mike, were battling it out for the starting spot at 157 lbs. He was a Junior at the time, but I wanted the spot just as badly as he did, even though I was a year younger. We had split our first two ranking bouts, so we had just one more match. Winner gets the starting spot.

At Messiah we called our "wrestle offs" "ranking bouts". This just meant that no one was getting wrestled "off" the team. Most ranking bouts were conducted in our practice room with Coach Brunk as the referee and a few other wrestlers there to keep time and score. The room was very quiet and empty.

I don't remember much of what happened during the final ranking bout that Mike and I had, but I do remember what happened at the end.

I remember Mike had 2 caution warnings so far in the match (3rd caution is 1 point). There was about 10 seconds left in the match and I was on top and winning by 4 points. I pretty much had the match in the bag. Before coach blew the whistle to start our wrestling, I remember Mike flinched. Coach could have called him for his 3rd caution and given me another point, putting me up by 5, but he didn't. I didn't think anything of it. If I was in his position I don't think I would have made the call either. It most likely wouldn't affect the outcome of the match anyway.

We continued to wrestle as if nothing happened and Mike ended up rolling me and getting a reversal right to my back and winning the match by 1 point. Needless to say, I was heart broken. I shook Mike's hand and then proceeded to walk down to the locker room. After he won, Mike just sat there. He looked more upset than I was. Coach Brunk looked extremely upset as well.

I was about halfway down to the locker room when Mike came running down after me. He stopped me and said that Coach should have called the 3rd caution on him, which would have given me another point, ending the match a tie. He wanted me to go back upstairs and wrestle overtime with him, even though the match was already over. I politely declined. He had beaten me fair and square.

I have heard many stories of teammate rivalries between wrestlers who are fighting for the starting spot. The mindset that your teammates are your enemies is destructive and divisive and can destroy even the most talented teams.

Without a doubt, the only person more upset than me when I lost that match was Mike. Mike and I loved each other like brothers. He hated beating me. That is how it should be!

When teams love each other they care more about their teammates than they do themselves. There is no room for selfishness in sports. I don't care what any commentators on ESPN say. When team members put their teammates first they will do anything to make the team better as a whole. On our team at Messiah, our backups were extremely important. It was our job to push the starters selflessly and we took great pride in the success of our teammates; more so than our own success.

Proverb 18:24 says "One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Great teams stick together closer than brothers. Coaches that desire greatness need to constantly teach their team how to love through word and action.  

#lovewins