Dan’s blog

The Beginning Blog 1 At the time of this writing, I am a special education teacher in an alternative high school. I do the special education testing, modifications, accommodations, Individual Education Plans (IEPs), and the Planning and Placement Team (PPTs) meetings. I also teach all the history classes of the school. I am dual certified […]

Owning the Mat Blog 14 Week 14   This is the week of the New England Wrestling Championships. None of our E.O. Smith wrestlers qualified for this elite-level U.S. northeastern tournament. However, Connecticut wrestlers did do well. Saint John’s Prep of Danvers, Massachusetts, took the team title. But, Xavier High School from Connecticut took second.

Owning the Mat Blog 13 Week 13   It’s another do-or-die week, and the stakes just got a whole lot bigger. The State Open is no joke. This is where the really big Connecticut boys come out to play. Every single match will be a one-on-one war on those mats. And only the top five

Owning the Mat Blog 12 Week 12   In some ways, many years, it seems like week 12 leading up to the Class State Championship weekend tournament feels like the hardest one every year. There is so much anticipation over where our wrestlers, or our sons, will rank in the mid-week coaches seeding meeting. Many

Owning the Mat Blog 11 Week 11   This week began with some bizarre injuries. We had nine wrestlers at both of our Monday and Tuesday night practices. However, Monday night’s injuries made it difficult for some of us, including myself, to do much on Tuesday night. Monday at practice, our 160-pounder reaggravated his rib

Owning the Mat Blog 10 Week 10   Well, this week has started off a little different. We began the week with a wrestling match against Putnam High School on Monday night. And although, as usual, we had one of our best wrestlers out for Covid, and another out because of work, it still felt

Owning the Mat Blog 9 Week 9   So, here we are going into the last full week of January. I’m beginning to feel like the end of the wrestling season is coming too fast. We only have a few weeks left, and then our regular season will be over. The Class M State Championships

Owning the Mat Blog 8 Week 8 Dang! Just found out that our wrestler who took first place over last weekend’s wrestling tournament caught Covid there and is now out for the next ten days. Two other wrestlers are considered close contacts, so now they are out too until at least the end of the

Owning the Mat Blog 7 Week 7 This season doesn’t seem to be getting any easier or closer to normalization. I found out over the weekend that two more of our wrestlers have Covid. My heart goes out to them and their families. In regards to wrestling, thankfully, no one on the team is considered

Owning the Mat Blog 6 Week 6 Here we go. Week six! It’s Monday, and we have 8 of our 10 wrestlers back for practice. For 90% of them, this is their first wrestling practice in 10 days. The boys looked like they were moving in slow motion today. The wrestlers were slow at everything