For every young man and woman that choose to step onto the mat and compete this year:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Coach, very well said. Sometimes, people choose to place value in wins and losses and they loose sight of the effort that goes into just being able to compete in this sport at the high school level. I have seen a number of wrestlers in high school this year that I wouldn't have thought would be here based on their skill level in Kid's Fed, and they have become pretty darn good. I am glad that they have persevered because we would have a lot more opens at duals and tournaments if they hadn't. More importantly, because these wrestlers continue to get much better, they raise the bar for the wrestlers that were pretty good in Kids' Fed.
