Barbara Lawlor, Gilpin County.  The bleachers were filled, two large mats with at least three wrestling matches going on at once filled each of the two gyms and coaches and parents bordered the mats, shouting out advice.

It was controlled chaos, beautiful bedlam, energetic, excited and exuberant physical competition as pairs of wrestlers focused on moving their opponent into a pin position an inch at a time.

On one end of the gym, the youngest athletes, as young as four years old, got onto the mats and rolled around like puppies, grappling to get the upper hand. Sometimes when they succeeded they would look up to their coach or their shouting parents, looking for directions on what to do next.

Even though they were adorable, they were also serious; they were learning the holds, learning how to switch momentum, learning how to be good sports even when things weren’t going smoothly.

After the ref raised the winner’s hand, both of the wrestlers would run to the comfort of their mom’s or dad’s arms, whether they won or lost. The mere largeness of the event was rather intimidating, but the new wrestlers would get used to it with experience.

In the other gym, the older athletes took to the mats and the seasoned wrestlers used the skills they have learned during their time with the Gilpin County Youth Wrestling team.

On Saturday, the Gilpin team welcomed over 800 people to the high school gyms in the first Metro League Wrestling Tournament of the season. Gilpin’s 30 wrestlers made up one of the 22 teams that came to compete.

Coach Pete Morgan says the tournament is the largest sports event in the county and he was proud that the Gilpin wrestlers were chosen to host it.

He says, “Our experienced wrestlers did well. Our beginner wrestlers had a tough day, but that’s how it works in this sport.”

The Gilpin team is the western-most in the league so the tournament began at 9 a.m. instead of the usual 8 a.m.

Gilpin County Education Association board president Craig Holmes brought in a mobile concession stand which was a hit among tournament visitors, offering enough food at a reasonable price to feed the masses: burgers, hot dogs, burritos and tacos. Holmes, himself, operated the concession.

During the day, about 600 matches were completed.

Gilpin results:

Ben Gebhart, U10 years old, 99-111 pounds, too 1st place: he had three very quick dominant pins.

Bradley Robinson, U12 years old, 65-68 pounds came in 2nd, which coach Morgan says was a big deal because it was possibly the toughest bracket in the tourney.

Joey Morgan, U12 years old, 78-85 pounds, came in 3rd.

William Siegrist, U12 years old, 139-152 pounds, came in 1st place.

Taby Lamb, U14 years old, 100-110 pounds, came in 2nd in a bracket of boys.

Davyn Meade, 2, and Brandon Robinson, 1, won as many matches on Saturday as they did all last year.

Coach Morgan says, “It is a big deal because it’s normal in today’s world for kids who had a tough year to quit. These athletes came back with great attitudes and improved greatly from last year. This is what this is really all about. They made us so proud.”

Seamus Cannon, Elijah Warner, Josiah Hockley and Conner Halloway all earned their first wins on Saturday.

Coach Morgan says that typically this tournament would be more of a novice level tournament, but that was not the case on Saturday.  “The majority of wrestlers registered were very experienced and the level of competition was very high this year.”

(Originally published in the print version of The Mountain-Ear on November 10, 2016.)