The Wrestler
When I was in high school I was on the wrestling team. I made the varsity team as a freshman and boy, did that help my self esteem. Seniors were saying hi to a lowly freshman. What a rush! Anyway, my wrestling coach was a great guy we called Coach Ailts. I always knew that Coach liked me, but beyond that I knew he thought I had great potential. Now you need to know that I often lacked motivation during practices. I was a meet wrestler, meaning that I could do well during the actual meets where it really mattered, but not so well during practices. Not that practices aren't important, I just wasn't convinced of that at the time. Well, needless to say, Coach Ailts had to push me quite a bit. I'm convinced that he even told the assistant coach to watch me during warmup exercises. I remember him standing over me to make sure I was doing them right. But again, it didn't bother me because I knew it was good for me and because Coach really thought I could go far, as a wrestler ...