FOUR WEIGHT CLASSES

Synopsis

Mableton High used to put fourteen wrestlers on a mat. This year it has four. A senior who has never placed, two sophomores, and a freshman who came out for it because his brother did. Ten empty weight classes are ten forfeits, six points apiece, handed over before anyone shakes hands. Orrin Fandry has coached here eleven years and has never had to explain to a boy that he is starting a match down sixty. The board votes in March. Districts are the week before. The gym is the only room in the county where two hundred people still turn up on a Friday, and Fandry has four wrestlers.

Who this is about

Orrin Fandry has coached wrestling at Mableton for eleven years and this season has four wrestlers, ten empty weight classes, and a board that votes on the program in March.

What goes wrong

Ten forfeits are sixty points awarded before anyone shakes hands, so his four have to pin their way out of a hole the schedule digs before the first whistle.

What's at stake

Placing at districts keeps the last sport in a consolidated county where the gym is the only building anybody still drives to on a Friday night.

Why it keeps going

Each meet runs the same impossible arithmetic again, and every week one of the four has to cut, hold or move a weight class to steal back a single point.

Takeaway

A team small enough to fit in one car finds out very quickly what each of them is actually for.

Shelves

Themes

Story, in the creator's words

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Style

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Characters

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Production plan

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