WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

It cost, well, Grace King's existence, but the George Trygg-Sam Sara Memorial tournament, starting on Friday, December 1st, and finishing the following day at Rummel High School, looks to be a very good event, if only for a chance for some lesser known grapplers to claim some glory.  Of course, by "lesser known" I mean Rummel's Kaiden Triche, De la Salle's Dylan Duvernay and Walker's Kye Karcher and Gabriel Millbern.  No - those will be some of the ones expected to do very well.  Holy Cross, Jesuit and St. Paul have sent their first-stringers to the South Walton Border Wars, and Chalmette has sent theirs to the Catholic Duals.  Brother Martin's schedule puts them at Catholic also, although they are not on the list of teams participation on TrackWrestling.  But Fontainebleau and Shaw are sending their best, along with Rummel and De la Salle.  The team championship is nobody's to claim before all is over.

Just to educate some of y'all, George Trygg was a a Division I state champion for East Jefferson in 1967 and 1968 and coached the Warriors to their only Division I title in 1978.  My first match ever was against that team in 1977.  That is 30 seconds I do not remember at all.  All week I kept hearing "Seals" and "Ravannack," sans having a clue as why those names invoked such fear in my teammates.  Trygg tragically died in an electrical accident in 1983, but remains highly esteemed by his wrestlers and many coaches, including my first one at St. Martin's, Al Trevino, who competed for EJ just before Coach Trygg did.

Sam Sara, as I recall, coached at John Quincy Adams Middle School before he was tapped to become the head coach at Grace King when it became a co-ed school in 1980.  The 1980-81 season was my senior year, and my coach then, Keith Hosli, worked out a deal with him.  He let my four relatively new teammates and I go to Grace King to practice.  There, I had bodies to work with and Keith had a whole team to coach, with Coach Sara absorbing every moment of how Keith did it.  It paid off well for the Irish as they won a Division II title in 1982 and placed second in Division I in 1986 and 1987.  Coach Sara passed away in 2020 at age 73.  He was a gentleman I was very proud to know.

Wrestling should start around 5:00 p.m. on Friday and 8:00 a.m. on Saturday.  Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children.  Rummel High School is located at 1901 Severn Avenue in Metairie, LA, basically where Severn hits West Napoleon.

Your other wrestling options (speaking of Greater New Orleans people) are to go to Baton Rouge or Florida.  Some of the kids at this event may not win or place in a tournament again this year.  If that is not worth watching, I fear the reader knows too little about the sport.

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