Winter Season

As the weather changes and the days shorten, we all have many different things that we look forward to. For some it is the many holidays that are vastly approaching us such as, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or New Years. For me as much as I love many of these holidays too, I love this time of year for another reason. I do not get to enjoy these holidays as much as I want like most people do, but I still enjoy this time of year. It is because it is the beginning of wrestling season and when the NFL season starts to get interesting, when teams start fighting harder for playoff spots.

As I mentioned early, I do not get to enjoy these holidays so much and that is because I am busy working out during this time and making sure that I do not go above the specific weight class that I can wrestle. So for example, while people are stuffing their faces with the mother, aunt or grandmothers favorite mouthwatering dish, I am not. Because I have a specific weight class that I cannot go above I have to be careful especially over thanksgiving and christmas about the particular foods I eat because I cannot gain more weigh than would allow me to wrestle my weight class. For example, this year I have practice on thanksgiving day and a tournament two days later which will not allow me to return home and enjoy thanksgiving with my family. However, I still enjoy wrestling it is a family tradition and I sport I love to do competitively.

I also spoke about the NFL season. Towards the end of December teams are playing for division titles or wild card berths which decides on which teams make it to the playoffs so teams come up with many different strategies and play more competitively during this time. My favorite team in the NFL is the Philadelphia Eagles and this year we are playing fairly well although we have been setback by injuries to some of our key players. I believe that when some of our players return we can finish off with a strong season, which I am excited for. My team is currently tied for first place in our Division with the New York Giants and in the conference with three other teams. During the offseason we traded our star quarterback in Donovan McNabb and many people doubted that we would contend this year, but so far we are proving many people wrong and I hope it continues.

~Jaaziah Bethea~