It is a common site to see either of my sons hanging out with the kids in their bracket laughing and joking ...or trading tips on how to "wrestle" someone coming up that day. The coaches and dads/moms of several kids we see each weekend never hesitate to say hi, give a wave or a thumbs up or high five when one of my boys win a match...or a "you'll get'em next time" if they lose. My youngest looks for Tristan Star and Tyler Harris at all tourneys...and my oldest Tyler Hughes and Spencer Blew...just to name a couple. My husband and I enjoy a laugh or two with the dads and moms. We've come to think of the wrestling community as an expanded "family" of sorts. Some people will ask "how do you sit all day just to watch for a few minutes?" and I'll say .."There is action all day...we have kids that we watch at each tourney that are not in our club..so there is almost never a break in the action for us! We cheer for a wide range of wrestlers...from the kids in 16u who my older son wrestled during varsity wrestling and won't meet again until next year, the one who beat my youngest and went onto win at Wichita. The kids from Paola, from the WWC, Horton, Atchison, too many to mention. We have made good friends from all over...share good times and bad each season. At the end of the season we are already looking forward to seeing them next fall. (as I type this my husband just updated me that along with my son, Lucas, that Tyler Harris and Tristan Star have both wrestled and won their first matches at Brute and will be up and ready to go again shortly....GO BOYS!!! )
So I think the Family is still there....you just make it what you want it to be! So make it a good experience for both your kids and yourself.

Kim Lovvorn