The making of a state champion – GrandDaddysSecrets

HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 36)

Blog 36 Week 11 Regular Sophomore Season Well, it’s getting into the second week of February, and wrestling season is winding down. Monday and Tuesday’s practices were pretty typical. The wrestlers did a bunch of spinning, some drilling, some stretching, and then some live wrestling. Then they did some more spinning followed by sprints to […]

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 33)

Dan's blog / danblanchard

Blog 33 Week 8 of Regular Sophomore Season This week started a bit different. Monday is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, so we don’t have any school today. But, what we do have is a 6:45 A.M. bus to a jayvee wrestling tournament back in Griswold. It’s the same place we were yesterday for the

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 31)

Dan's blog / danblanchard

Blog 31 Week 6 of Regular Sophomore Season Week six is here, and the struggle for Dakota’s knee to heal in time continues. We’re hearing a lot of different things from a lot of different people about what to expect for his recovery time and whether or not he’ll be able to wrestle in the

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 28)

Dan's blog / danblanchard

Week 3 of Regular Sophomore Season Well, here we are in week three of Dakota’s sophomore wrestling season of high school, and it has been riddled with ups and downs already. One of the cool things about this wrestling season so far is that Tony, the front door security guy, no longer asks me to

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 24)

Dan's blog / danblanchard

Blog 24 Week 11 Regular Season Freshman Year The beginning of this week has been a blur, and I have barely been able even to notice the wrestling season that is winding down. Sadly, wrestling has taken a back seat lately since Dakota has been injured and I’ve been running myself dizzy with

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 23)

Dan's blog / danblanchard

Blog 23 Week 10 Regular Season Freshman Year It’s been tough. Real tough. Dakota has spent his entire life so far as the only boy in a family of seven. He even has a female dog. But recently he felt like he finally found his sport, his team, and the right group of

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HITTING THE MAT: The Making of A State Champ or At Least A Good Man! (Blog 21)

Dan's blog / danblanchard

Blog 21 Week 8 Regular Season Freshman Year Dang! Just as Dakota was starting to turn the corner and really step up his game! This last weekend might have been his best performance in a varsity tournament so far… But here we are again running into some very frustrating obstacles at the beginning of

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

Dan's blog / danblanchard

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 12)

Dan's blog / danblanchard

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)

Dan's blog / danblanchard

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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