The annual holiday tradition at Elphinstone Secondary - the Rudolph Rumble - was another action-packed afternoon of wrestling on Dec. 21.
The Cougars played host to Balmoral, Sentinel and Carson Graham with 44 wrestlers coming from the North Shore to the Sunshine Coast. Elphi fielded a team of 20, so 64 wrestlers battled in several different weight classes with each wrestler getting in at least two matches.
Elphi coach Clint Fox said he was pleased with the meet, the results from his team and the quality of the matches.
"We had some outstanding wrestlers here today and some of the matches were incredible," Fox said. "The novice wrestlers from our team got a chance to wrestle at home for the first time in front of their family and friends, and that was great.
What I like that is happening is the camaraderie between the North Shore kids and us. They know each other. They wrestle each other quite a bit and there's a lot of respect that happens too in the matches. I like to see them go onto the mat and be good competitors and also come off, shake hands and talk about their match afterwards."
Fox said all three teams have been big supporters of the Rumble in the past, and he paid special homage to Balmoral.
"Balmoral has always come up with some excellent wrestlers and supported our meets up here. I think they respect the fact that we have to travel a lot," Fox said. "Their coach [Ian McDonald] has always been good to our students on the Sunshine Coast. He's included them on trips in the past - to Cuba, wrestling. I think the camaraderie that is happening between the athletes is also rubbing off on the coaches and it just makes for a better program overall."
Fox said he's thrilled with the first half of the season and he's hoping the good results continue in January.
"Our first half of the season has been really strong. Our novice wrestlers have improved every week. We have a lot of brand new wrestlers to the sport, and win, lose or draw they recognize they are learning," he said. "Every match they go into they become a little bit more skilled, a little bit more experienced. Some of them are older wrestlers in grades 10, 11 and even a couple of grade 12s who are wrestling for the first time and they realize they are fighting an up hill battle against the kids who are a little more experienced, but I'm pleased with their attitudes because they're more than willing to put in the time and the effort to learn the sport recognizing that somewhere down the road they're going to catch up - probably by the end of the season for some of them, so I'm really, really pleased about that.
"Our experienced wrestlers are holding their own. The coaches on the North Shore know that we have a tough team and they look forward to wrestling us. Ian [McDonald] was saying there are a few kids on the North Shore that should have been here to wrestle our wrestlers, but they chose to compete in some easier matches in town. If they really wanted to challenge themselves they should have been here on the Sunshine Coast. Ian hand-picked some kids to come up here to wrestle our kids because of what we've done in the past, so I appreciate that. Again, regardless of the results on the mat, the fact that some kids are coming up here to wrestle our guys is a big sign of respect."
The Cougars had several practices over the holidays and get right back into competition in mid-January with an all-star duel meet where wrestlers from the west side of the North Shore will take on wrestlers from the east side of the North Shore.
After that it's off to Kamloops for the Western Canada age-class championships in Kamloops where Fox plans to take possibly 12 to 15 wrestlers and the North Shore championships at the end of the month.
