Greetings Westview Wrestling Families –
Welcome to our new families and welcome back to the returning families.  I am looking forward to a fun and exciting wrestling season for our team!

Volunteers Needed for Rose City Championship Tourney! – Remember, we do not do any other fundraising other than hosting the Rose City Wrestling tournament.  We expect all families to get involved in helping at either the concessions stand or other opportunities.  Friday, December 11th, and Saturday, December 12th, Westview is hosting the Rose City Championship tournament.  Following is the link to the Sign Me Up spot, please go there to see how you can help and sign up!  Volunteering also gets you in the doors free for the tournament the day you volunteer!  Click here to Volunteer!

Due Tuesday – Spirit Pack orders and Sumner Trip permission forms!

Parent Meeting – It was great seeing many of you at the parent meeting.   I shared some information from a presentation I attended a few years ago by Bruce Brown entitled: “The Role of Parents – The Impact of Trust/Teaching Character thru Sports” put on by Westview High School.  It was a very solid message that I took to heart as I parent/coach my kids, truth be told, it called me out in a few areas.  I have included my notes from the presentation for you below,  I hope you take a few minutes to read them.  If my notes don’t make sense, feel free to ask me any questions about the material.

Distribution List – I have updated the distribution list for our Wildcat Wrestling families.  If you need to have an address added, adjusted or deleted please let me know. We are probably missing a number of families on our distribution list.  If you know of anyone that needs to be added, be sure to have them email me to get added.  If anyone needs to get a message out to the team, please send to me and I will include it in the weekly update.

Competitions this week:
Sumner Dual Meet Tournament – This weekend the team travels to Sumner High School in Washington for a Dual Meet tournament.  This means that the team will wrestle about five other teams at the tournament as they would in a dual meet.   This is an overnight trip for the entire team (All freshman through Seniors) to travel along, though only Varsity wrestlers will compete.  You wrestler should have had a permission slip signed and turned in by Tuesday, if this has not happened for your wrestler please do so as soon as possible.  The team leaves from Westview at 12:00 pm on Friday and will return Saturday night when wrestling is done, it will be a bit late as they will stop for dinner on the way home.  This is a great experience for the whole team as they will really bond together on the long bus ride, overnight hotel stay, and hanging out and cheering each other on all day! Wrestling at the tournament is scheduled to start at 9:00 am.  If you are interested in staying in the same hotel as the team, hotel information is here:

BEST WESTERN PLUS Peppertree Auburn Inn – Auburn, WA
401, 8th Street SW, Auburn, WA 98001-5901
Auburn Toll Free Reservations: 253-887-7600
Auburn Tel: 253-887-7600

Freshman/Novice Tournament Next Tuesday 12/8 – The first freshman/novice tournament is at Banks High School next Tuesday, 12/8, starting at 4:30 pm.  Wrestlers will stay after school and then bus to Banks.  Wrestlers should either bring food/drink for the evening to school with them or their family can bring their wrestler food at the event. These events usually last anywhere from 2-3 hours then will bus back to Westview.  The full freshman/novice tournament schedule is on our website.

Go Cats!!!!
Greg Timmons
Team Dad

Notes From Bruce Brown on The Role of Parents – The Impact of Trust/Teaching Character thru Sports:

What your players need before the game/season:
Three questions to ask yourself and then ask your son/daughter before the beginning of the season:
1.       Why do I want him/her to play?  What goals do I have as a parent for this season?
2.       What roll do I want my player to take this year?
3.       What will measure a successful season for you?
If your answers are the same, great!  If your answers are different – then drop your answers and accept the answers of your son/daughter!

Release your child to the game, to the team, to the coach.  The experience is for the child/player, not for anyone else.  Before you release them, make sure they are safe both emotionally and physically.

Releasing them to the game allows them to take risk, to fail and learn.  Where do you want your kids to take risks and where do you want them to fail?  Is there a better place to take a risk or fail than in sports?  There are many places you don’t want them to take risks…with friends, drugs, sex, etc. that have very negative consequences.  Risks and failure in sports are great learning experiences because they don’t have to have negative consequences.

Every sport and every team will have problems come up with a team of players.  They need to learn how to solve their problems on their own without us parents intervening in everything. They will gain that experience and skill.

If as a parent you continue to try to coach them (especially as they enter HS) there will be a resistance from them.  Kids often turn to sports their parents know nothing about as a form of resistance when their parents try to over coach them.

What your players want/need during the game/season:
1.       Be There:  When you are not, it stays with them.
2.       Model Appropriate Behavior: if we expect them to act with poise and confidence then we need to model it.
3.       Focus on the team and the teams goals.  Take the spot light off of our own kids.
4.       Four roles in any game: player, coach, spectator, official.  Everyone has to choose one – be very good at the one you are.
5.       Only one instructional voice: the coach.  There can be many voices of encouragement.  If we as parents try to coach during the game – it will either distract them or they will tune it out.
During the game:  are the games fun for you?  They are fun for the kids.  Are we as parents more nervous about the game or upset afterwards than the players are.
Yelling at a referee or official:  this shows a lack of respect and poor role model as it models one adult yelling at another.

What kids want/need from their parents after the game/season:
1.       The most consistent answer from players across all ages and sports to the question of, “what was the worst part of your experience in sports?” – The car ride home after the game with their parents.  (the critical analysis of the way they play)
2.       Kids need time and space after the game to process and decompress.  We need to back off.  Let them bring it up if they want.
3.       What can you say after the game?  “I love watching you play!”  no judgment in how they played…just that you loved watching!
4.       Be a confidence builder not a confidence cutter.
Told a story about a College Division 1 athlete who could have played in any college near home, but the athlete chose to go to the college 1000 miles away to get away from the parents and the “ride home” after the game. Be a great parent –we don’t have to be their coach.