John Knapp

HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 26)

Blog 26 Week 12 Regular Freshman Season             The season is over, but it really isn’t over, yet. Sore, bruised, and scratched up, Dakota is back in my Subaru right in the middle of another New England snowstorm. We’re heading out on this Monday morning to a neighboring town for Dakota to work out […]

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 17)

Blog 17 Week 4 Regular Season Freshmen Year The former state champ doorman, Tony, was the same as always. He was extra pleasant and wore that million dollar smile. However, when I entered the back gym’s wrestling room, something was different… The coach was really pushing the boys hard tonight; even more than usual. He

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 16)

Blog 16 Week 3 Regular Season Freshman Year This last Monday night after another pleasant conversation at the front desk with Tony, the former state champ wrestler turned security guard, I headed into the school’s back gym to try to catch the last few minutes of Dakota’s practice. I noticed two things when I got

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 13)

Blog 13 Preseason Week 13 Tonight I took my time eating dinner. It’s my son, Dakota’s last night of preseason wrestling practice with Coach Knapp and Coach West at the KT KIDZ Wrestling Program in Rocky Hill, CT. It’s been one heck of a preseason where Dakota has had a huge uphill battle to face

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 12)

Blog 12 Preseason Week 12             Dang! It’s Monday night again, and Dakota and I haven’t done any drilling for wrestling at all since his last practice. We did manage to get to the gym to lift some weights over the weekend though. But, even though lifting is better than nothing, it’s still not

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 11)

Blog 11 Preseason Week 11             Monday’s 45-minute car ride to KT-KIDZ Wrestling was good. During it, I spent some time sharing some of my high school underclassman war stories on the varsity wrestling mat with Dakota. I’m trying to work on Dakota’s self-confidence and mental toughness because I know he’ll have a much

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