Throughout the wrestling season from November 1st 2007 to Feb. 29th 2008, The Monsignor Doyle Wrestling team under the guidance of Coach Lowry, attended 9 tournaments across the South-Western Ontario area. Early mornings and LONG days are indicative of these tournaments, sometimes starting as early as 5:30 am (due to traveling to the tournament location) and lasting well into the evening.

The Team attended the Following Tournaments:

• Monsignor Doyle Wrestling Tournament
• St. Mary's Invitational
• Sarnia Invitational
• Jacob-Hespeler Invitational
• St. David's Invitational
• Waterloo-Oxford Invitational
• Waterloo County Secondary School Athletic Association Championship
• Central West Ontario Secondary School Association Championship

Rob's performance at these tournaments are as follows:

Monsignor Doyle Wrestling Tournament- 2nd Place Finish	St. Mary's Invitational - Bronze Medalist
Sarnia Invitational - Silver Medalist	Jacob-Hespeler Invitational - Silver Medalist
St. David's Invitational - Gold Medalist	Waterloo-Oxford Invitational - Gold Medalist
Waterloo County Secondary School Athletic Association - Silver Medalist	Central West Ontario Secondary School Association -   Gold Medalist

O.F.S.A.A.:

Since he was the Gold Medal Champion at the C.W.O.S.S.A. tournament, he was qualified to compete with the best wrestlers in the province at the O.F.S.A.A. (Ontario Federation of School Athletics Association) Championship, which was being held in Caledonia, Ontario on February 27, 28th and 29th 2008.

At this championship tournament the best wrestlers from each region meet over a 2 day period to see who will be crowned the All Ontario Champion for 2008 for each weight class. It was a standard "double elimination" format with wrestlers competing against opponents of the same weight class, with winners moving on to the next championship round and losers moving to the consolation round. Once a wrestler has sustained their second loss, he or she is eliminated from competition.

The weigh-ins were held on the Wednesday evening before the competition started and each wrestler is required to "make weight" or become disqualified. Rob's coach was a little concerned when he showed up at school on Wednesday morning almost 1/2 a kilogram OVER his weight class! Rob was advised that he would have to trim that extra weight BEFORE weigh-ins that evening. So he spent his entire lunch break AND gym class on the stationary bike- burning calories and sweating off the extra pound! By weigh-in that evening he successfully made his weight! He celebrated by eating half a pizza for dinner since he was hungry from not eating all day!

The next morning I woke him up at 6:15 am, made him a hearty breakfast, packed a lunch and drove him to school in time to catch the van that his coach had arranged for the 8 members of the Monsignor Doyle wrestling team that qualified for O.F.S.A.A. I also gave him my cell phone so that he could text Angie and myself his progress throughout the day.

Day 1:

Rob had 3 matches on the first day. Each match will consist of 3- 2 minute rounds. The match was won by the wrestler with the most points at the end of the 3 rounds or by the wrestler that "pinned" his opponent. Unfortunately I could not attend the first day, since I had an important meeting for work which I could not postpone. Angie did however manage to make it to the tournament to cheer our son on!

The results of Day one are as follows: (Note: I have excluded the names of his opponents as well as the school or club from which they are associated since I do not have their permission to publish any information about them.)

Rob (in the solid blue w/ white striped singlet) won his first match by pinning his opponent in the second round. The picture at the right shows his moment of victory.
Rob won his second match by pinning his opponent in the second round. The picture at the right shows his moment of victory.
Rob unfortunately lost his third match by decision on points. The picture at the right shows him in action during the second round.

Since the competition matches lasted WELL into the evening, he didn't arrive home until about 10:30 pm. He was excited about his performance, and disappointed by having been beat in his 3rd match. But, he was still in it and was looking forward to the next day's competition

Day 2:

Rob (in the red/ blk/ white singlet) won his 1st match of the day by pinning his opponent in the 2nd round. The picture at the right shows his moment of victory.
Rob lost his 2nd match by decision on points. He was disappointed by this, since he almost pinned his opponent during the second round! The other wrestler was able to wiggle out of trouble and eventually won the match. The picture at the right shows him in action during the second round. This being his 2nd loss, it eliminated him from the tournament.