There were three specific statements made by coaches this past weekend that probably will stay with me for a while.

When he talked about Tee Boone’s unexpected loss, Notre Dame coach John Mullin said, “Only 14 kids will leave this (Division I) tournament completely happy.”

He also talked about winning being the only visible byproduct of the sport and how every coach in McKenzie Arena had a “crushed dreams” story. But he and Boone also talked about the lessons learned from the sport and how those lessons will carry wrestlers into and through the future. Perhaps more than any sport, wrestling shows the cruel side of adversity, of wins and losses and how one deals with each.

Then there was Steve Logsdon, coach of state-winning Bradley Central, who explained the agony coaches feel when one of their kids loses and the joy when one of them succeeds.

And then there was Cleveland coach Heath Eslinger, who had to deal with the inexplicable and unfortunate disqualification of Max Ofori, his 215-pounder, in the championship match.

Ofori, who entered the match with but one loss, was penalized four times for grabbing his opponent’s headgear and the fourth brought an automatic disqualification.

His opponent’s headgear moved, to be sure. That’s going to happen when a strong youngster ties up and pulls his opponent’s head forward. It is a move that Ofori used all year — pulling the head forward and then grasping the leg to attempt a takedown.

I’ll never believe that Ofori grabbed the other guy’s headgear intentionally — and certainly not four times. This is a kid with a 4.0 GPA and academic offers from some of the nation’s finest colleges. He is, in other words, far from lacking the ability to comprehend and reason.

His coaches were disappointed, angered and frustrated, but there was no change in the call and no recourse but to absorb the loss and deal with it — another of the lessons often taught in rather brutal fashion.

“That’s life and life isn’t always fair,” Eslinger said.

This is a tournament that will always be remembered — and tainted — for that one match, and it’s a shame because it was a grand tournament from Father Ryan breaking Baylor’s stranglehold on the Division II championship to the epic battle that developed between Eslinger’s Blue Raiders and Steve Henry’s Soddy-Daisy team for second place.

It was good also to see camaraderie blossoming again among the coaches. Wrestling for the most part is highly competitive but at the same time it is filled with friendships and strong relationships among its coaches, participants and its supporters.

Other things I’ll remember about the season:

— Hixson winning the state duals championship and then surprising a whole lot of folks, including me, by winning the Region 4 traditional championship.

— Signal Mountain hosting its first region tournament. The school is a showpiece and Casey Thompson and his volunteers did a great job.

— Baylor freshman Zach Watson making it two years in a row without a loss. The kid is amazing and you have to wonder if there isn’t a tiger in his family tree. He pounces like one and then hangs on like a leech — or a pit bull. The freshman could easily have won his second best wrestler award.

— There is a kid at McCallie that certainly deserves watching in the years to come, 160-pound Blaike Henry. He’s confident and talented. And other DII wrestler to watch is Baylor 215-pounder John Mackey. He is pure athlete. And if you didn’t notice, Campbell Lewis, the 125-pound champion from Soddy-Daisy, is just a freshman.

— The 130-pound final between Ooltewah’s Cody Hood and Soddy-Daisy’s Taylor Witt, a match won by Hood by a single point — could easily have been voted the state’s best.

— While it is hard to watch actual wrestling on the first night and the following morning because of the enormity of the event, one youngster I especially enjoyed watching was Father Ryan’s Chris Agnew. Never mind that he finished fourth, the youngster wrestles with the intensity and heart and hustle of a champion. During a conversation with Pat Simpson, the Ryan coach said that Agnew started the year at 140 pounds and when teammate Matt Brewer returned from an injury Agnew jumped to 152 because of his desire to make the Purple Irish a better team.

— And I can’t let this go without saying one more time that wrestling owes a debt of gratitude to the people of Clarksville. Led by Artie Manning, the parents and supporters at the school built the state duals into a premier event. I’m sorry they decided to let it go. They did wonders and, yes, that praise includes coach Jeff Jordan. We have not always agreed but Jeff has been and is good for the sport. He always did what he thought was best for his program, and you can’t fault a man for that.