Two Of My Cousins Take To The Mat Tomorrow At The Iowa State Wrestling Tournament

It's pretty cool when someone you know does something special. It's awesome when they're a relative. Two of them, from the same family, at the same time? That's downright incredible.

Lane (above) and Noah Boender are brothers who both wrestle for my high school alma mater, Sigourney, in southeast Iowa. Lane will make his second straight trip to Wells Fargo Arena to wrestle on the big stage, starting Thursday. He won the district championship at 152-pounds last Saturday.

The younger of the two, Noah, will wrestle in the 220-pound weight class tomorrow and is making his first visit to the mat in Des Moines. Looking at his picture (below) and wondering where all those pounds are? You're wondering for good reason. Noah is actually just over 184-pounds... 184.1 is the lowest possible weight you can wrestle at in the 220-pound class and he barely made it last Saturday. Why is he wrestling 220? He'd been at 170 throughout the season, but moved up to the empty weight slot for sectionals. He won both sectionals and districts, so clearly things have worked out well.

Lane and Noah are cousins on my mom's side. It goes without saying they probably wouldn't be there if they had any James blood in them. :) No, I wasn't a wrestler. However, my dad and I spent many nights cheering on former coach Jack Smith and his high school wrestling dynasty in Sigourney in the 70's and 80's. We still love talking about, and watching, Iowa wrestling meets on television. I always try to remind him when they're going to be on.

My schedule won't allow me to be in Des Moines for the guys' time on the big stage in the coming days. You can bet I'll be thinking of them though. Congrats fellas... we couldn't be more proud!