The Weekly Update #4

The Month of March is associated with many activities: The beginning of spring, St, Patrick's Day, The Ides of March, and of course basketball's March Madness. I've never been much of a basketball fan but I am a huge wrestling fan. You may think that I misspelled the title but I did not. Mat Madness! On one particular weekend this year I was able to attend the state individual tournament and catch four college tournaments on television, sometimes with multiple screens. That's pretty intense!

This year West Perry had a spectacular season. The team had two victories in the state tournament and we had three students finish on the podium in the individual state tournament. Those are great achievements. This post is more about how I feel that life is a lot like wrestling. Admittedly I was never a very good wrestler but have always respected those who were and the lessons that can be gained from the sport.

Wrestling is well known as an individual sport. There is just you and your opponent going as hard as you can for six minutes against each other. It's your skills and training versus the other athlete's skills and training. To be the best, you have to sacrifice. State champions are not made from 3:00-5:00 Monday through Friday in the high school wrestling room. To raise to that level you must be tirelessly committed to a purpose. The lesson for life is the same. When we have goals that we are passionate about, we have to work tirelessly to achieve those goals. We have to have the best possible training and a keen focus. We have to give extra!

What many don't appreciate about wrestling unless they have been involved in the sport is the team aspect. In wrestling you can never be better than the room that you are in. Penn State Wrestling is a prime example. Their wrestlers have the opportunity to wrestle the best talent in the world on a daily basis. Constantly they are pushed by national and world champions and thus they have won 11 of the last 13 national championships. We can find this same context in our lives. The mindset that the smartest person in the room is the room means that all of us together are better than any of us singularly. To reach the highest levels of achievement, your skills and training may not be enough. To reach the top of the podium you need an incredible team, to lift others and to allow yourself to be lifted.

I hope in this post you can see and feel my vision for the West Perry School District. The words that we use when we talk about wrestlers: courageous, gritty, challenging, resilient, skilled, determined, disciplined, are the same words that we can use to describe great schools. We need great individuals and great teams to accomplish our goal of being the very best.