Next week marks the Minnesota boys state hockey tournament, the crown jewel of the winter sports high school slate. Pageantry, tradition, passion, talent, atmosphere — all of it will be on full display at Xcel Energy Center in just a few days time.
But it was at the X this weekend, as well.
Tucked between the girls and boys state hockey tournaments is a three-day event that’s beloved within its large community, but perhaps not appreciated enough statewide. There’s something uniquely special about the state wrestling tournament.
Everything that is special is derived from the sport itself. The Thursday team event is just that, a team sport. It might not feel like it at all times — each duel is a series of 13 consecutive 1-on-1 bouts, after all. But know that 90 percent of the lineups taking the mat even at state feature a few role players.
They aren’t role players in the same sense of other sports, where you can perhaps get away with being smart in your few touches of the ball, some good defense and maybe grabbing a rebound or two that comes your way before getting out. Or a defensive end sealing an edge to funnel a ball carrier back to the linebacker.
There’s honor in those contributions, as well, but this is different.
These athletes, some of whom lose more matches than they win throughout the year, have to take center stage in the middle of the mat and battle their hearts out for, hopefully, six minutes. Often, it’s with full knowledge that they’re going to lose their contest. But if they can scrap enough so as to not lose by much, and definitely not get pinned, they can save their team points that matter in the math equation that determines the victor in a battle between two quality teams.
It’s not uncommon for a bout to end and both teams to cheer, one because its kid won, the other because its kid successfully did his or her job when everyone was watching. And, at the end of a team victory, a coach is quick to tell you saved points here and there won the team the duel.
And when a duel is indeed clinched, there’s nothing quite like the roar.
The unison with which fans of a school chant “two” when they believe a takedown was scored, scream for a “stall” when an opponent appears to be trying to kill clock, or holler at the top of their lungs when a pin appears imminent, can be felt in your bones.
And when a result is secured, the emotion comes flooding out of wrestlers and fans on both sides of the coin.
Emotion is everything in wrestling. The athletes put themselves on the line in practice and competition. You’ll never be more exposed in high school sports than when standing in the middle of the mat with just you and your counterpart, with hundreds of people watching to see what you’ll do next.
Both parties train year round in some capacity to best position themselves for success in that very moment. They put so much into it that when it ends, good or bad, there’s an inevitable release. And there’s nowhere to hide it.
The individual state tournament is a parade of talent and tears. Win, and there’s jubilation, and relief. In that moment, all the sacrifice feels worthwhile.
Lose, and no matter how hard and well you battled for those six-plus minutes, you are immediately forced to grapple with the sadness that it didn’t go your way. It’s a common scene at state for a wrestler post-defeat to, after the customary post-match handshake, sprint off the mats and into the bowels of the X in search of a place to sit in solitude and process.
There are no words of solace that provide any comfort at that moment. And while the value of the work put in and lessons learned will benefit the athlete in the years to come, it doesn’t always feel that way at the time.
Because it hurts.
There lies the beauty of it all.
It’s a collection of kids from all across the state and beyond — there was at least one wrestler from this year’s tournament who hailed from Afghanistan, and another from Ukraine — from different backgrounds and socioeconomic situations, from the Twin Cities and the furthest corners of the state, from powerhouse programs and schools for which they were the only tournament representative.
None of that matters when they hit the mat. Because they all did the same thing to earn their spot in the arena: poured in countless hours of effort in a hot wrestling room, likely in sweats, running, drilling and practicing intricate maneuvers again and again and again in preparation for the split second in which they’ll have to pull it out with everything on the line and fans roars filling the arena.
And in that moment, it’s all that matters.
Because wrestling is not a sport you do to pass the time for a few months, or one you use to train for another activity. It consumes those who choose to participate. When you’re in it, it becomes your life. You give the sport your blood, sweat and, yeah, tears.
You should see it for yourself.
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