A Near Disaster in Wrestling

I’m sad to report that Lindsay’s college wrestling career nearly came to an ignominious end on Sunday. Lindsay is wrestling at 191 and splitting time with another wrestler on the roster. This weekend, her team had a quad at Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Connecticut. Other participating schools were New England College and Delaware Valley.

Lindsay got the opening match against NEC. She wrestled a patient six-minute match and hit a hip torque on the ground for back exposures—she had never done that in live competition before. She won 8-3. Even better, her old Dungeon Training Center partner and fellow high school All-American Ayla Goldman traveled down with her mother, Amy, to surprise Lindsay.

To top it off, Lucia arrived home from Hawaii for Christmas break and came with us to the meet. So Lindsay had a wrestling reunion and a sister reunion and won her match. All good so far.

We reached home after six pm and settled in to watch the Chiefs lose to the referees and the Cowboys throttle the hated Eagles (Cry, Eagles, Cry!). Lu’s boyfriend Brayden called and we all visited with him. As they were talking, Grant called to gloat about how the Cowboys game was going. On speaker, both callers got to say hi to each other.

But then, in the middle of those two calls, we got a third call. It was Lindsay. And it was so serious that we had to clear Brayden and Grant off so we could help her in a moment of true crisis. A hush fell over the family as Lindsay said on speaker, “I think Coach Lackey might kick me off the team.”

“Why?” said Lauren.

Cue dramatic music.

“I think I left my singlet in Connecticut.”

For the uninitiated, the singlet is what the wrestler wears to wrestle. This would be akin to a soccer player leaving her jersey in the locker room after a game.

“Well, you can probably just message Tayla and have her send it to you,” Lauren said.

Tayla is a former club teammate who now wrestles at Sacred Heart and is good friends with Lindsay.

“What if she can’t find it?”

“Have her check first. Then you can tell Coach Lackey.”

“I’m gonna write to Lackey right now. Hang on so I can read to you what I’m going to say.”

Good idea since her whole career hung in the balance (a replacement singlet costs between $60 and $75–no way we can overcome that).

We heard her tapping on her phone. Then she read the message to us. We approved it.

“Okay, I’m gonna get off now so I can go deal with this.”

Great idea. Fight for your college life!

I heard nothing the rest of the evening. As we got ready for bed, I said to Lauren, “Did Coach Lackey get back to Lindsay? Did Tayla?”

Lauren: “Oh, her teammate Azariah had it.”

“What?”

“She saw it out as they got ready to leave, so she grabbed it.”

Azariah is sharp and obviously a great human being. Why? She is a 170. She and Lindsay could eventually compete for the roster spot at 170 or 191. Just think—she could have knocked Lindsay right out of the program but took the high road instead.