Wrestling Match Loss Essay -- Narrative Memoir Essays

Wrestling Match Loss    As I crawled off of the mat in anguish, I couldn't believe that I let it happen again. My one chance to settle the score and truly prove that I was better, was gone. My coaches and friends tried to tell me how good I did and how lucky he got, but it only made the pain worse. They put into perspective exactly how close I was to beating him, and it just made me think more. Think about how this was his last year, and how I would never be able to avenge my defeat. It made me feel like everything that I had worked for all season was lost in a split second, one that I couldn't take back. The 2000-2001 wrestling season started off the same as any other with tormenting practices and the effort to get in as good of shape as possible for the upcoming season. I can truly tell you that wrestling is the most physically and mentally demanding activity that I have ever participated in. The amount of joy when you win is overwhelming because it was all you and nobody can say that they won it for you. Unfortunately, the same can be said about losing. I can't describe how it feels to lose a close match that you know that you should have won. Learning to deal with that feeling and move on is the hard part of it. You have to be mentally tough and realize that it just makes you better to lose small, than to win big. I started the season off well, but didn't win a tournament until late in the season in Lake County. In the finals of that tournament I wrestled a kid from Cedaredge by the name of Roy Gage. The reason that I singled this match out is because you will probably be hearing quite a bit more about Mr. Gage. In a previous dual match, I had pinned Roy in the first period and he didn't seem to be much more than a du... ...e mat in disbelief. It took me a while to recover from the crushing loss. I didn't talk to anybody the rest of the day, and pretty much kept to myself. Charlie, James, and Kyle cheered me up a little with their wins in the finals. I almost forgot about the match completely when James won state, but afterwards it all came back to me. The match still haunts me today, but I think that it will do more good than harm. It will make me work harder this year to make sure that I don't get put in a situation like that again, and if I do then I will remember how bad it was to lose to someone that shouldn't have beat me. I'm convinced that it will make me work that much harder not to let it happen again. I got fourth at state as a Junior, which is pretty good, but that match will remain in my memory forever, and it will make me shoot for bigger and better things this year.