Moments of Pride

We had the wrestling banquet for the High School tonight and it was awesome. For one thing, Ricardo, as a 9th grader, received tons of awards: All Conference team, all City team, most pins for the varsity team, most take downs on the varsity team, best record on the varsity team, and selected by his teammates as the teams' Most Valuable Player.

And, icing on the cake was what happened next. Leon has lived in Ricky's shadow all year and yet been positive and contributory the whole way through. So there were four awards given by the team. MVP, Best New Player, Most Improved, and then the Coaches Award. The first three the team members vote on. The last one, only the coaches vote. They explained that they voted for a person who just kept working hard, had a great attitude, and kept smiling no matter what. I assumed the award would go to a Junior or Senior. But no, you guessed it, my 9th grade Leon got that award.

These boys deserved this. They worked hard all season long. And it's fun as a parent to watch a child get award after award. Seeing their pride and sense of accomplishment -- nothing better.

A great night.