December 30, 2001:

This tournament was at Chartiers Valley again. This time it was an open tournament. That’s when there could be kids that have wrestled for 5, 6 or 7 years. I had another bye for my first match again. My Uncle Billy showed up right before the first match I wrestled and my grandfather was there too. This match I wrestled a Tyler from Burgettstown. He won 8-0.

Now I had to wrestle Mikey Stetzer from my team. I would have liked to wrestle a kid from a different team than my teammate. I would have liked to beat that Tyler kid and wrestle for first and second place because Mikey’s my friend. When you wrestle your teammate you aren’t teammates or friends on the mat, but when you get off the mat you are friends and teammates again. I won 16-0.

Next I’m going to wrestle for third and fourth place. I was against a boy from Bethel Park. He used moves on me that he’s never get done to anyone else that he wrestled. He hurt my right arm muscle in the second and third periods. I lost 15-0. I did win a fourth place trophy. My coaches, Carr and Jeremy (left), said that I wrestled a lot better today than I did at the first and second year tournament.

December 29, 2001:

This was my fourth tournament. My tournament was at Chartiers Valley. This was a first and second year tournament. My two grandfather’s - Pappy Amelio (left) and Pa Manion (middle) - were there and my godmother and my Uncle Billy (right) was there too. This was the first time my Uncle Billy saw me wrestle because he works in Singapore. My Uncle Billy was Section Champion two years in a row for Chartiers Valley. He won in 1974-1975.

My first match was a bye. My second match I wrestled a boy from South Side Beaver. I had 2 near falls. I had 2 escapes. I had 2 take downs. I had a reversal. I won 14-0.

My third match I wrestled a kid from Gateway. He pinned me.

This time I wrestled a boy from Connelsville. In the third period the kid had me in a pinning position and it really hurt me. Then I came back and pinned him. I pinned him using a karate move, it is called kesagatame. I learned it in grappling in karate. Grappling is very similar to wrestling. At the end of the match I would have lost if I didn’t pin him. The score was 10-8. I had 8.

Now the next match I wrestled will be for third and fourth place. I wrestled that match right after I wrestled the last match. (Note: Tyler only had a 5 minute break between these last 2 matches due to an error in the tournament bracketing.) I wrestled the same boy from Hopewell that I lost to 6-0 at South Side Beaver. I lost here 4-0. But I won a fourth place trophy.

December 21, 2001:

This practice wasn’t at our school. This time it was at Chartiers Valley High School. We wrestled there because our South Fayette high school guys wrestler there because South Fayette doesn’t have their own high school program. I wrestled J.J. and a kid from Chartiers Valley.

First we did some live wrestling. The Chartiers Valley head coach called numbers out so then those numbers go out and wrestle. But we only had a group of three and almost every group had four, so we just took turns. Then some of the high school wrestlers showed us moves. The move they showed us was the high crotch. Then they showed us a move when the top guy twists his hand then breaks you down. Then we practiced a stand up. We did some more live wrestling. Mark McKnight helped our group when we did it too. He is ranked number 1 in Pennsylvania. I pinned the Chartiers Valley kid about 10 times and I pinned J.J. 6 times, and J.J. pinned me 4 times. Then we finished practice by running laps around the C.V. wrestling room.

December 20, 2001:

This was my thirteenth practice. My coaches were Coach Carr and Coach Jeremy. First the coaches showed the first year kids how to sprawl. Then we practiced having your partner throw a half nelson and then the person on the bottom looks the opposite way and peels it off. My partner was John Schwab. Then we did some live wrestling with our partner. I took John down once and he took me down twice.

Then we wrestled live from the top and bottom positions. I pinned him twice and he pinned me three times. Then we played King Of The Mat. I wrestled Coach Carr’s son Seth. I beat him. Then I wrestled J.J. Simpronio. I beat him too. Then I wrestled Stevie. I won again. Then I was King Of The Mat.

December 18, 2001:

This is my twelfth practice. My coaches were Coach Carr and Coach Jeremy. They talked about the tournament and the match. They said that we got hit with headlocks a lot. So we practiced how to reverse headlocks three different ways. The first was when you’re standing up, the second way was when you’re half way bent down, the third way was when you’re in the pinning position, you just roll them over and now they’re in the pinning position. Then we had to do five push-ups and Coach Jeremy said that the team should go and check out my website here. Then he made us run laps and I asked if we could play sumo tournament and he said, Yes, because your website was so good.

So then we played sumo tournament. We had three rounds, the third round I won one. I was going against Stevie. I lost my second one against Monte Lyons.

December 16, 2001:

This was my first match. The match was at Fort Cherry. There were four teams there. The teams were Fort Cherry, Weirton, W.V., Mt. Lebanon and South Fayette.

First I wrestled a boy from Fort Cherry. The match was really hard. He even had 1 or 2 years more experience than me and weighed more than me too. I lost. The score was 12-5. That was my first match.

Next I wrestled a boy from Mt. Lebanon. The match was hard. I lost. The score was 10-4. That was my second match.

I was supposed to wrestle a kid from Fort Cherry. Then the kid from Fort Cherry wanted to wrestle John Schwab from our team. He only weighed 67 and John weighed 70. So I wrestled another boy from Mt. Lebanon. He weighed 12 pounds more than me and he had two years more experience than me. He pinned me in the third period. He had me in a choking move so I couldn’t breathe for a minute.

December 15, 2001:

This was my third tournament. It was at South Side Beaver. This was a qualifier for The Tournament Of Champions. I have had eleven practices. I wrestled a boy from Hopewell. He was pretty hard. The match was pretty hard. I pinned him in the second period. I wrestled blindfolded for 30 seconds [because the other boy pulled my headgear down over my eyes as we were wrestling]. Before I pinned him the score was 2-7. I had 7.

Now, since I pinned him I get to join the Pin Club. That’s when you get to put a pin on your sweat outfit. Your goal is to get the pins all the way down your arm and that’s how many kids you pinned. That was my first match.

I wrestled a boy from Hopewell again. When I was trying to do a takedown he just moved away and got behind me. Then for the first, second and third period I was down. After he got behind me I was down all the time. The score was 6-0. He had 6, I had 0. I lost this time.

For the third match I had to win or I couldn't wrestle in the tournament anymore. I wrestled another boy from Hopewell again. In the first period he got the takedown. In the second period and third period I was on the bottom doing escapes or a reversal. In the third period when he broke me down I put a headlock on him [doing a reversal] and that got me two points. When I got him on his back I got three points for that. If I had five more seconds I would have beat him. But I lost and was out of the tournament.

December 11, 2001:

This was my eleventh practice. There was a parents meeting. A parents meeting is when all the parents of the wrestlers come and find out how their child or children are doing and ask questions. Mr. Cochran, my Mom and Mrs. Carr, they are in charge of the parents meeting.

At the beginning of practice the first squad was still there. We were learning how to reverse a headlock two different ways. When you’re standing up trying to do a headlock and the second way was when you’re in a pinning position and the guy has a head lock on you. You just flip them over. My first practice was with Mikey Stetzer. He practices with the first squad. My second partner was Sean Lubin. Then Coach Carr and Coach Jeremy said all the little kids sit against the wall. I didn’t sit because I had karate practice during the first squad’s practice.

Then we did push ups until everybody stopped talking. We did it about 20 times. Then we played take down tournament. I won against Stevie Hennon and lost against Sean. We played sumo tournament after that. I was against Sean and I lost.

December 08, 2001:

This was my second tournament. It was at North Allegheny. At the tournament, my baby cousin came, and my Aunt Gerrie and my other cousins.

At the tournament I wrestled a boy from Moon. His name was Tyler too. I wrestled him before when it was my first year wrestling. He beat me then. Now I want to beat him. He was good. The match was hard. The score was 2 - 4. I lost again. When my grandfather called Tyler, the other Tyler from Moon looked at him and when the coach of Tyler called his Tyler, I looked at him. Then my Dad said Tyler Shane or Tyler Manion. Shane is my middle name. I felt good even though I lost the match. I felt good, because I almost won the match. Then I thought in my head that I want to beat the next kid I wrestle.

I wrestled a boy from West Mifflin. The match was hard, because he kept pushing my head down to the mat. I got my first take down in the tournament. In the third period I kept the boy in the down position. At the end of the third period I kept putting him on his back, but not long enough to get points. The score was 2 - 0. I won. After the match I realized I hurt my right thumb. When the match was over, the referee told me to take the score to the score table. The score table asked me to take a form to a table that tells you what mat you are going to wrestle on next.

I was thinking in my head that I want to beat this next kid so I can wrestle for third or fourth place. I want to get third place because I can qualify for the Tournament Of Champions in Ohio. If you win the Tournament Of Champions you are considered the best youth wrestler. That’s why I was thinking I want to beat this kid. There were a lot of people there because you could qualify for the Tournament Of Champions.

I wrestled the same boy from Aliquippa from my first tournament. I had control of the match for the first and second period. He kept going out of bounds. I made a few mistakes in the match. I locked hands twice and each time he got one point. You are not allowed to lock hands in wrestling, because it is one of the rules. In the third period he took control of the match. He almost pinned me at the end because he picked me up and slammed me to the mat, which hurt my head. The score was 2 - 7. I had 2. The Aliquippa boy had 7.

December 06, 2001:

This was my tenth practice. My coach was Coach Carr. My partner was Joshua Carmen. He weighs about 15 pounds more than me. When I tried to take him down, he just pushed my head to the mat. We were doing live wrestling.

I wrestled with the first squad and the second squad. The first squad ages are 5 -8. The second squad ages are 9 - 12. But I got to wrestle in the second squad, because Coach Jeremy said.

I stayed for the second practice because Coach Jeremy said I am the only little kid that’s not afraid to wrestle Seth. Seth wasn’t there, so I had to wrestle the other kids. My partners were Monte Lyons and Sean Lubin and John Schwab. We learned the tilt. Then we did live wrestling. My partners were Sean and Monte. I pinned Sean once and he pinned me once. I pinned Monte once and he almost pinned me.

December 05, 2001:

This was my eighth practice. My coach was Coach Carr. We practiced break down from the top position and we practiced stand up’s from the bottom position. Break downs are when you get someone in a pinning combination. First you grab the ankle and put it back. Then you put a half nelson on them.

December 04, 2001:

This was my seventh practice. My coaches were Coach Jeremy and Coach Geffrey. We did live take downs. We did live wrestling from the top and bottom positions. My partner was Coach Carr’s son Seth. I pinned him every time.