January 26, 2002:

This was my seventh tournament. It was at Fort Cherry. I placed third here last year.

My first match I had a bye. Next I wrestled a boy named Aaron. He was from Bethel Park. The score was 5-0. I won. After that, the Bethel Park coaches watched all of my matches and when I was walking to the bleachers, they would congratulate me. If I win my next match, I will wrestle for 1st and 2nd place.

Next I wrestled another kid from Bethel Park. His name was Korey. I wrestled him at the last match at the C.V. Open Tournament. He was seeded # 1 in my bracket. Instead of him getting 15 points on me and me getting none, I got 3 points. I had a take down and an escape. The score was 18-3. I lost again. He ended up getting second place because he got hurt. When I took him down he was shocked. He usually pins all of his kids that he wrestles.

I watched this next match to see who wins. Whoever wins the match against Matt Tokar, who I pinned at West Allegheny, or Elijah Wichter, I would have to wrestle one of them. Elijah only won by one point, so I knew I could beat him.

I had to wrestle Elijah. He beat me twice this year. Once at the Freedom Tournament and once at the North Allegheny Tournament. I had been wanting this match since 11/10/01. And now I want to beat him. He is from Aliquippa. If I win, I get to wrestle for third and fourth place. I beat him finally, the score was 14-8. The coach of Elijah said that I have improved from Freedom and North Allegheny. Now if I win my next match, I will place third.

I wrestled the same kid named Aaron from Bethel Park that I did in my first match. I was really tired but I didn’t let go of his leg. I won in double overtime because he was locking hands. The score was 3-2. I placed third in the tournament.

Today I was wrestling for my grandmother because she is very sick. I also listened to this music in the car ride to the tournament that made me get pumped up.

January 24, 2002:

This was my twenty-fourth practice. First we did live wrestling. My partner was Seth again. I pinned him 6 times. He didn’t pin me. Then we did live wrestling from the top and bottom positions. I pinned him 6 more times. He pinned me once.

Then we practiced the Near Side Cradle and the Cross Face Cradle again like yesterday.

January 23, 2002:

This was my twenty-third practice. First we practiced the Near Side Cradle and the Cross Face Cradle. Then we did some live wrestling. I pinned Seth Carr 7 times and he pinned me once.

January 22, 2002:

This was my twenty-second practice. First we did live wrestling. I pinned Mikey Stetzer 5 times. Then we did wrestling from the top and bottom position. I pinned him 6 more times. Then we practiced the Pancake and the Wizard.

January 19, 2002:

Tyler after pinning his 2nd opponent.

This was my first match at Carlynton this year. I had my first match ever at Carlynton last year. The schools that were there were Ambridge, Freedom and Carlynton.

First I wrestled a kid from Carlynton. I pinned him early in the second period. He weighed 10 more pounds than me. He also had one more year experience than me. Next I wrestled a kid from Ambridge. I pinned him in 28 seconds in the first period.

Tyler at the very start of his 3rd match.

Then I wrestled another kid from Carlynton. I pinned him in 31 seconds in the first period. He weighed 5 more pounds than me.

Tyler getting his hand raised, yet again, in victory, after pinning his 3rd opponent.

Those matches were my best matches in 2 years, but before I went there I watched all my wrestling matches this year. What I learned was when you get hurt, you don’t give up. That’s what helped me do so good today.

Tyler with teammate Jack Previte, a 5 year old, 1st year wrestler. Tyler and Jack were the only members of the South Fayette team to each pin 3 kids at the Carlynton Match.

Note the new uniforms for South Fayette.

January 17, 2002:

This was my twenty-first practice. First we practiced the Pancake. Then we did live wrestling. I pinned Mikey Stetzer 5 times. He didn’t pin me. Then we wrestled live from the top and bottom positions. I pinned Mikey 6 times. He didn’t pin me.

Then we wrestled a live match. We wrestled 1 minute, 1 minute, 1 minute. I pinned Mikey 7 times and he didn’t pin me. Then we wrestled another live match for 6 minutes. I pinned him 8 times and he didn’t pin me.

January 16, 2002:

This was my twentieth practice. First we did live wrestling. I pinned Stevie Hennon 6 times. He didn’t pin me.

Then we learned the Pancake. This is how you do it. First you over hook your left arm, then you under hook your right arm. Then you throw the kid to the side that is over hooked.

Then we did more live wrestling from the top and bottom position. I pinned Stevie 7 times and he didn’t pin me.

Before practice, I went to see Chartiers Valley J.V. kids wrestle. I went to see them because a lot of them used to be on my team last year. Even Coach Carr’s oldest son Nathaniel wrestles there too.

January 15, 2002:

This was my nineteenth practice. We did live wrestling first. I pinned Sean Lubin once and he didn’t pin me. Then we did wrestling from the top and bottom position. I didn’t pin Sean, but he pinned me twice.

Then we learned how to do the Wizard. First you put your right arm around the other kids head and your left hand holding his left arm around your stomach. Then you let his head pop up a little, then roll to your right.

January 12, 2002:

This was my second match at Montour. The teams there were Montour,Moon, Aliquippa, Edison (Steubenville, Ohio) and South Fayette. I wrestledhere when it was my first year too. First I wrestled a kid from Moon.Early in the second period I got too high on his shoulders when I was tryingto do the cradle. He just rolled me over and put a cradle on me instead ofme putting him into a cradle. He pinned me.

Then I wrestled a kid from Montour. Half way into the third periodhe had my left arm and slammed me down to the mat and I hurt my left eye.At the end of every period I would have escaped and the score would havebeen 5-3 and I would have lost by two points, but instead I lost by 5. Thenafter the match, the Montour coach's talked to me a long time. They saidthat he has 5-6 years experience and that I was 1 of 4 kids that he didn'tpin.

I had another match but my Dad wouldn't let me wrestle even though Iwanted to wrestle. My teammate Mikey Stetzer took my match for me. My Momgot some ice for my eye so it wouldn't swell. My eye feels a lot betternow. So I am ready for practice on Tuesday.

January 10, 2002:

This was my eighteenth practice. First we did live wrestling. Ipinned Stevie Hennon 4 times and he pinned me once. Then we practiced theHigh Crotch.

We learned the Near Side Cradle. First you break them down, thenyou put your head in their ribs and post your left arm on the right side ofhis head and post your right arm behind his right leg. We practiced this alot.

January 09, 2002:

This was my seventeenth practice. First we did live wrestling. Mypartner was Seth Carr. I pinned Seth 6 times and he pinned me once. Thenwe did live wrestling from the top and bottom position. I pinned Seth 5times.

Then we learned the Fireman's Carry. This is how you do it. Firstyou tie up. Then get their right arm and get in a position so that yourleft leg's down and your right leg's up and they're over your shoulders.Then you throw them to your left side and make sure you still have his arm,then you go chest to chest.

Then we learned the High Crotch. Since Seth left the wrestling roomand Nick Carr didn't have a partner, I practiced with him. This is how youdo the High Crotch. First you do the first half of the Fireman's Carry,then you lift a leg up on the other kid and trip the other leg.

Nick got Seth and we wrestled live one more time.

January 08, 2002:

This was my sixteenth practice. My partner was Nick Carr. We didlive wrestling first. Nick has 3 more years experience than me. When hedid moves, he broke them down for me to learn. Then we did live wrestlingfrom top and bottom position. Then we did live wrestling one more time.

We learned a move when you put your arm under the other kids arm pitand put your hand on his chin and slam him down to the mat. Then wepracticed the Cross-face Cradle.

January 06, 2002:

This was my sixth tournament. It was at West Allegheny. I had abye my first match. Next I wrestled a kid from Hopewell. In the secondperiod he pinned me.

Then I wrestled a kid from West Allegheny. I pinned him in thesecond period. The coaches said I hurt him so the ref just gave me threepoints. I would have won anyway because I was winning 8-3, but the matchwas over. I didn't even know that I hurt him. No one did except his coach.I felt bad that I hurt him and that he couldn't wrestle. Your goal is notto hurt people. In wrestling, people can get hurt but it is an accident. Ididn't mean to hurt him. After the match I went over to his coach to see ifhe was O.K. His coach said, "He'll be fine."

Next I wrestled right after my other match was over. I wrestledanother kid from Hopewell. When the match started the kid was trying totake me down, so I just sprawled and I was breaking him down and puttinghalf nelson's on him. Then I kept telling my coach I wanted neutralposition, but he kept putting me down and I escaped and sprawled and CoachCarr said, "You wanted neutral, now you got it". I won 8-0.

Tyler with his Mom and sister Cassie.

Now I was going to wrestle for a fourth or third place medal. Iwrestled the same boy from Hopewell as I did the first match that I gotpinned. I lost 1-5. He locked his hands on me, that's how I got one point.I won a fourth place medal. I won a fourth place medal here last year too.

January 04, 2002:

This was my fifteenth practice. This practice was with the wrestlers from Fort Cherry school. Coach Jeremy set us up with groups of 2, 3 and 4. I was in a group of 4. I was with Stevie Hennon and 2 other Fort Cherry boys. One of the Fort Cherry boys had 4 years experience and the other boy had 5 years experience. The first boy weighed 70 pounds and the other one weighed 75 pounds.

First we did live wrestling. Coach Jeremy called numbers so we would know who to wrestle. Then we wrestled live from the top and bottom positions. After that I told Coach Jeremy they put too much weight on me. So Coach Jeremy put me with Sean Lubin. We did more live wrestling from the top and bottom. I pinned Sean 4 times and he pinned me 3 times. Then we practiced wrist rolls.

There was a first year kid named Roy Rothenberger from our team that didn’t have a partner, so he was with us. We showed him how to do moves then he did it on us.

January 03, 2002:

This was my fourteenth practice. My coaches were Coach Carr, Coach Jeremy and Coach Geffrey. We did live wrestling. I pinned J.J. Simpronio 7 times and he pinned me 3 times.

Then we did live wrestling from the top and bottom positions. I pinned J.J. 4 times and he pinned me 1 time. Then we did more live wrestling. J.J. body slammed me. I hurt my head and I hurt a little part of my eye.