It’s an eerie feeling, missing the show.
After four months of covering wrestling, I knew this could be the year. I guess I never really believed that this would be the year.
Now I know what Tiger Woods felt like when he missed the cut for the first time on the PGA Tour last season.
The Giant Center in Hershey is where the best wrestlers in the state congregate each March to compete. For the first time in the last seven years, I cancelled my hotel reservation.
It felt like sending back a pizza because it was too cheesy ” you just don’t do it.
As I dialed to cancel my reservation, I broke into a sweat. What am I doing? I felt like Martha Stewart at a tractor pull ” something was way off kilter.
The hotel receptionist asked, “and what’s the reason for your cancelation?”
I wanted to cry, but I ultimately babbled something like, “my plans changed.”
I didn’t lie at least.
For over a decade I’ve been covering state wrestling tournaments, whether it be in Atlantic City for New Jersey’s finale or in Hershey. There would be no chocolate chip cookie waiting for me this year, though.
Pius X did advance a pair of wrestlers ” Tony Comunale and James Sciascia ” in Class AA. Unfortunately, it’s tough to rack up $400 in hotel fees and the expense of traveling for two athletes.
Thanks to cell phones and the PIAA’s internet website, my coverage strategies have taken new avenues.
I wanted to be wrong about my gut feeling of being shut out of the Class AAA championships. And when the Mountain Valley Conference advanced 16 wrestlers to the Northeast Regional ” the most in the last seven years ” we had to get a few through to the state tournament.
Fate determined otherwise.
At the Northeast Regional, the defeats in the quarterfinal stacked up like dominoes. The area featured 11 wrestlers in the quarterfinal round, but just one advanced to the semis, Eastburg South’s Carl Trytek at 103.
Eventually, all 16 regional qualifiers fell, most of them primed to contend again next year with the understanding of what it takes just to reach the state tournament.
And the good news is a handful of them will reach the state tournament next year, that I’m sure of.
Some of the best lessons, they say, are learned through disappointments and setbacks. I’ll get over missing the big show, too.
After all, this was a year of firsts for everyone.
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