# of Generations in Wrestling

[1oldwrestler]

My son and I were discussing what I perceive to be the realtive "newness" of h.s. wrestling.  I could be way off base here but this is my experience:  my older brother was the first to wrestle in any generation of my family and he graduated h.s in 1977.  I also wrestled in h.s. and graduated in 1982.  My father was born in 1928 in the country (went to a 1 room school house, the whole nine yards) and never wrestled at any level which isn't surprising but he never did any sports becasue he was needed on the farm.  My oldest is graduating h.ss this spring and he would be considered only a 2nd generation wrestler (his younger brother also wrestles and is in middle school) in our family.  As I thought back to my h.s. days there wasn't one kid on my team whose dad had wrestled.  Looking around today, a lot of kids have fathers that at least wrestled at some point in their lives.  I'm just curious to know how many generations some of you have in the sport.  I can't imagine there would be anyone beyond 3 generations which speaks to the "newness" of h.s. wrestling.  I understand that  public schools (and therefore, h.s. sports) are a relatively recent phenomonon.  It wasn't until 1918 (only 10 years before my dad's birth)that all states had adopted legislation requiring all kids to attend at least elementary school.  I doubt there are too many h.s. sports, including the biggies like f-ball & b-ball, that go much more than 3 or 4 generations deep.  You would think that as more generations get exposed to the sport of wrestling that it would increase in poularity and numbers but we're unfortunately not seeing that trend for reasons often discussed on this forum.

[12andcounting]

my brothers and i are the first generation, and all of us graduated in the 90's.  dad played basketball in high school, but you better believe our sons will be the 2nd generation of wrestlers in our family.

[saltwaterchangedme]

I was a 2nd generation wrestler at Bellmont.  Both my father and uncle wrestled varsity at Bellmont.  I had great hopes that my son would be a 3rd generation Brave.  However, he has shown no interest in wrestling.  I was pushed as a kid to wrestle.  I won't push him.  So far, he is a heck of a 8 year old 2nd baseman.

[1oldwrestler]

I was a 2nd generation wrestler at Bellmont.  Both my father and uncle wrestled varsity at Bellmont.  I had great hopes that my son would be a 3rd generation Brave.  However, he has shown no interest in wrestling.  I was pushed as a kid to wrestle.  I won't push him.  So far, he is a heck of a 8 year old 2nd baseman.

 

I understand your desire not to push your kids into wrestling.  I never did at all with my oldest. I wanted him to come to wrestling on his own becasue I was afraid that if I pushed him it would have ended badly.  Consequently he didn't start until 7th grade but loved the sport all the waythrough h.s.  We still laugh becasue after his soph yr he asked me why I didn't push him to start earlier and I told him he'd have run from the sport if I had pushed.  My youngest has been wrestling since 3rd grade but that was b/c of his older brother's example.

[Justdo^it135]

I am a first generation wrestler. No one in all of my family had done any wrestling at all. I got my start in kindergarten when i brought home one of those fliers that they pass out in school and told dad that this is what i wanted to do. Didn't win a single match my first four years of both Folkstyle and Freestyle. Suppose i turned it around a little bit since then. You can put money on my kids being wrestlers as well.

[~B~DOGG~SMASH~]

Had a Uncle wrestling in the 70's(Indpls. Scecina); another Uncle in the 80's(Walnut, CA)state place winner; older brother in 80's(LN '85 to '89); me(LN '92); nephew(Fishers, IN) nephew(Center Grove) and a couple of little guys waiting to make their way on to the mat soon.