NDHS Daddy Duals

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Daddy Duals a tremendous success for North Desoto

October 20th, 2021| Written by: Staff writer

The North Desoto Griffins hosted the inaugural

on Thursday, October 7th, at the North Desoto High School Gymnasium.

The event pitted 10 Griffin wrestlers against the fathers of nine other Griffin wrestlers and one undefeated amateur mixed-martial-arts competitor. It was the maturity and wisdom of the Dads versus the youthful vitality of the Griffins.

"Youthful vitality" demolished "maturity and wisdom" nine matches to one.

Event coordinator and Griffins head coach Dustin Burton remarked that while the Dads got whipped, and many had much more difficult next mornings than they may have expected, they learned a lot about their sons. In particular, they learned more about the physical exertion their sons put themselves through at every practice, and often at home. Most of them learned it in the first 60 seconds of their matches.

The evening started off with a prayer and a great rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Caleb Robison, who also did the play-by-play and announcements for the crowd. After the fifth match the North Desoto cheerleading squad and Renee's Dance Team entertained the crowd.

North Louisiana wrestling royalty in the form of Coach Donny Burton and longtime official Gene Strogen were on hand. Coach Burton did color-commentary with Coach Russell Sarpy for the Facebook streaming of the event while Mr. Strogen officiated the matches. North Desoto wrestling royalty was represented ably by 2019 and 2020 Division II state champion Joshua Sarpy and 2021 Division II runner-up Dylan Olivier (pictured with his grandfather). Mrs. Yvette Sarpy was on hand with NDHS head coach Dustin Burton's wife Amy. Coach Burton was all over the gym during the event but was caught taking a brief respite.

I thought a photo of the Dads before and after the matches would be interesting, but if the Dads were hurting they hid it well. When it was all over everyone was nice enough to pose for a photo. Rumor has it the exertion took its toll the following morning, as the Dads learned not only a keener respect for what their sons go through every day at practice, but also that body parts they may have forgot they had could still hurt under the right circumstances. This writer was reminded once again that not being on the mat any longer was probably a good thing - no doubt he would have been huffing and puffing out chunks of lungs. (Yes, those are images of real human lung pieces. However, no lungs were harmed during the writing of this article.)

Wrestling-specific Media and Catlike Reactions

As if this writer was not bad enough, two more of those pesky wrestling-specific media from the 2019 state championships drove down from Shreveport to view the event. Sporting blue shirts from the 2021 state championship for which they were not credentialed (nepotism ruled in 2021) were Miss Emily Hamman, who was the first additional LWN photographer in 2016, and Jonathan Belaire, who was on the 2019 staff of LWN photographers . Keeping those WSM in line was Miss Alena Butterworth.

One of the most fortuitous things that happened on the evening was what did not happen. The Dads entered the gym for their matches through a CO2 fog from the foyer. Wesley Swayze took his entrance a step further by riding a motor-scooter around the mats before taking his place on the Dads' side of the mat. Suffice to say the LWN photographer did not know Officer Swayze planned to do that, nor did Officer Swayze know the LWN photographer was, at that time, returning to his equipment at the opposite corner of the mat. Yet the lightning-fast reactions by Officer Swayze and the LWN photographer prevented a possible "RMS Titanic, let me introduce Mr. Iceberg" catastrophe.

THE MATCHES

The matches consisted of three periods: a 60-second first period was followed by two 90-second periods. During the matches the Dads got two 45-second "times outs," many of which were asked for (or decreed by official Gene Strogen) while they were on their backs. It did not take long for the Griffins to realize that if they did not do something really stupid in the first minute, the remaining two periods would be significantly easier for them to control.

Some of the earlier matches were pretty close after the first minute or so had passed. But the Griffins, who in October probably do not consider themselves "in shape" at all, proved to be in much better shape than their competition.

The only loss for the Griffins was by sophomore Kyan Jackson, who fell to A.J. Molina 8-4. The two matched-up well size-wise, but Molina seemed a little more confident and was more aggressive, and Jackson has yet to compete in a varsity match. Give Jackson another month on the mats with the more experienced heavier Griffin wrestlers, and then see if Mr. Molina wants a rematch.

What was very evident was the class the Griffin wrestlers showed before, during and after the matches. Coach Burton has honed a group of high schoolers into gentlemen all. They are polite and well-spoken young men of whom North Desoto High School and Stonewall, Louisiana, should be very proud. From the attendance at the event, Stonewall already appears to know that. Kudos to Coach Burton and the entire Burton wrestling dynasty on shaping these young men into wrestlers, and, more impotantly, letting wrestling bring out the best in the young men.

Match # 1	Match # 2	Match # 3	Match # 4	Match # 5
Collin Bell vs. Johnny Stoute	Sam Jones vs. Rob Bell	Daniel Olivier vs. Mikey Kershaw	Hunter Addison vs. Wesley Swayze	Hunter Hansen vs. David Moon

Match # 6	Match # 7	Match # 8	Match # 9	Match # 10
Caden Robison vs. Nim Clark	Jacob Freeman vs. David Griffin	Kyan Jackson vs. A.J. Molina	Jeremiah Rainey vs. Hunter Cooley	Lance Ferguson vs. Kelby Pearah