Michele Weldon | January 13, 2012
It’s Friday night and I am in a Coralville, Iowa hotel room, a little weary from the four-hour drive from Chicago west on 88 and then even west-er on 80, past texting truck drivers and horizontal snow winds, miles of empty ice-dusted fields and about 1,000 signs for Subway. I just finished putting six turkey, cheese and spinach sandwiches I made this morning and about a gallon of Vitamin Water in the small humming refrigerator for Colin to eat tomorrow after the weigh-ins for the Iowa City West quad against Apple Valley and Marmion.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Michele Weldon | December 28, 2011
You know you’re a wrestling parent when: Beyonce sings about all the “single ladies” and you hear “all the single legs” and wonder why Beyonce has a song out about wrestling?…The smell of wrestling shoes brings back memories of matches rather than makes you sick to your stomach (ok, it might make you sick to your stomach as well)…You know more about rashes than your doctor.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Michele Weldon | November 16, 2011
In the stands every wrestling season since 2004 I have had plenty of anxiety attacks about what work I needed to do once I got home, what I needed to get accomplished for the house or for life, how to keep all the pins juggling in the air. But it was always worth it to go, spend most of the day in a gym wearing the orange and the blue just to see what splendor my sons could create. And it was splendid, even if the gym smelled bad and the other parents were sometimes hostile and some kids cried when they lost.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Caryn Brooks | November 14, 2011
Coaches know what a 17 or 18-year-old wrestler cares about. They play to hopes and dreams of championships and gold medals. On one official visit the coaches were sure to take a route that passed the outdoor pool with hot tubs and a waterfall at the rec center. It was an especially warm weekend at the end of August and plenty of young women were working on their tans while wearing very little.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Michele Weldon | August 31, 2011
Nothing could be worse than sitting in the stands all day or even just an evening only to miss your son or daughter’s six minutes, right? Well I have discovered what could be worse – traveling overseas to watch your son wrestle and missing it!
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Michele Weldon | August 21, 2011
At a fundraiser held in a bar near Midway Airport recently, wrestling moms, dads, aunts, friends and a three-time world champion shared pizza, meatballs and world-class encouragement from three-time world champion Lee Kemp for a quad squad of Illinois wrestlers headed to Szombathley, Hungary this week to compete in the World Championships. All of it to help four Illinois wrestlers; Matt Rundell, Darius Henry, Sammy Brooks and Zane Richards, with the costs of the overseas trip.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Michele Weldon | August 4, 2011
Now our state is sending four wrestlers to be part of U.S. team that will take on the world. Those wrestlers will compete in the 2011 FILA Cadet World Championships in Szombathely, Hungary August 23-29. To help defray that you are invited to the Illinois’ World Championship Party! on 8/13, 6-10 p.m., a benefit to raise money for Illinois wrestlers competing in Hungary.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Michele Weldon | August 2, 2011
Many of us who are members of the Huskies Wrestling Family have been watching Ellis Coleman for years, since he was an eighth grader member of the Little Huskies. And here he is, a 2009 graduate of Oak Park-River Forest High School, this week making this crazy flying squirrel Ellis move that landed him on the home page of Yahoo, ESPN and so many sites.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Michele Weldon | July 10, 2011
As wrestling parents we all make hard choices. My children, especially Sam, have been given amazing opportunities because of wrestling. I would like to be there as they take advantage of those things, but it’s not always possible.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
Michele Weldon | July 5, 2011
See for yourself in this video why being on this team with this coach is an extraordinary experience for the young men on the team, including all three of my sons. Coach Powell talks about the coaches, the Oak Park-River Forest High School Huskies wrestling team, recent 2010 grad Charlie Johnson, and how any man can be extraordinary. Listen to senior Brian Toldeo talk about how wrestling changed his life. Watch Chris Ellis embrace Coach Powell. And maybe you can understand why it is about much more than wrestling.
Newer Posts
Previous Posts
