Wrestling spans generations at Kenner tourney
Coach instructing former student’s son as 18th annual invitational returned
Sasha Gravelle sat in the Kenner Collegiate gymnasium watching her son Christian wrestle 19 years after her then boyfriend and now husband Russell wrestled in the same venue.
Tying it all together was Kenner wrestling coach Frederic Chislett who has taught fathers and sons before but this is his first time coaching a former student’s son. Christian Gravelle was one of 215 athletes competing in the 18th annual Kenner Invitation Wrestling Tournament on Wednesday. There were 15 schools from the COSSA region participating.
“It’s a wild feeling in the sense that it kind of dates you somewhat,” said Chislett. “I remember Russell so well and that’s the way time is it just seems to fly by. It’s a neat feeling of continuity.”
Sasha says she and Russell were high school sweethearts at Kenner. She remembers watching him win a gold medal at a tournament in Lindsay. Also participating in that tournament all those years ago was Aaron Glover, then a St. Peter’s student, who is now Chislett’s co-coach at Kenner.
“It’s the same feeling,” Sasha said, of watching her son. “It’s the same bubbly excitement. Watching him win it was like, ‘Yes, it’s a victory.’“
When Russell won the invitational in Lindsay she said all his friends said, ‘it’s because your girlfriend was here.”
“My dad told me to try wrestling out and I did and I liked it,” said Christian, a Grade 9 student, “So I’m just going to keep going on with it. I like going up against people and taking them to the ground. It’s pretty cool.”
His father has shown him a few tricks at home. He lost his first two matches at his first meet in Trenton but he won his first two matches at Kenner showing he’s a quick learner. He competes in the 72-kilogram weight class.
“My dad told me to stay low, keep my hands up, take him down, turn him and pin,” said Gravelle.
Sasha thinks wrestling is good for her son.
“Self-discipline is a big thing especially for this age group. It’s also fun,” she said. “We’re all about fun. If you win or you don’t, it’s not a big deal. It’s about did you have fun – at the end of every tournament or match or anything. If he says yes then you keep going.”
Like his father, Christian is in Chislett’s integrated technology class.
“His father I’m sure pushed him in my direction but I made sure he was going to wrestle,” said Chislett. “He’s one of the best students I have and I kept saying to him, ‘You’re going to wrestle for me.’ I knew he’d have the talent.”
The Rams have 17 wrestlers on their team captained by Ben Craine who is seeking his third consecutive trip to OFSAA this year, to be held in March in Ottawa.
The Kawartha seeding meet will be held in Haliburton in February with COSSA in Belleville one week later.