A Sunday meet

Cobras - Corporal Meet; Antonio Guenaga Municipal Gym, Santos
When I stepped outside, the first thing I saw was the van waiting for me. Mr. Costa was behind the wheel, smiling as he greeted me; Coach Rodrigo was at his side and the kids were in the back seats, making a lot of noise. Despite the normal joy and excitement kids usually have, there was a note of tension in the air they tried hard to release by playing tricks and jokes on each other, as the van glided through the streets of the city heading for Rebouças Municipal Gym. The place was already full. I looked at my watch and it was 7:50. Galhardo still found time to remind them of the football match between Santos and Paysandu at Vila Belmiro.
The kids went down to the locker rooms to get ready and it was fascinating to see them in full gear, for my first time with them in a competition; see the way the adversaries looked at them, especially Panotti, Morales and Galhardo who seemed to be well-known in the community. All against all. The referees had drawn lots within each category to distribute the matches. Morales would be one of the first to wrestle. We all sat down around the mat, out of the security limit imposed and watched as Morales went to the center of the circle with his opponent. Rodrigo and the opponent's coach stood outside the mat for encouragement, according to Figueira.
"It's the only thing they can do for us. Root and give us courage. For the rest, Morales and his opponent are all alone. And believe me, you will never feel so alone in life as you are there on the mat, even surrounded by so many people. I feel every time I go for it and will feel it today", he said with a grave expression.
My stream of thoughts was interrupted by Morales and his opponent standing in front of the referee, a man in white with a blue wrestlet on his right hand and a red one on his left. They shook hands with the referee and with each other before they started.
And did they start, fierce, as if warm-up had taken place for long. Morales attacked and was attacked all the time. Then the two were stuck, still standing as Morales sought to pull up his opponent's supporting feet to take him to the ground. The latter was then faster and managed to throw Morales over his back, exposing Morales' back to the mat. Nervousness took hold of Corporal.
"Shit, the other kid is already scoring", said Galhardo, concerned, "the closer Morales' shoulders are to the mat, the worse."
Morales was really in a difficult situation, though he moved a lot, trying so very hard to escape as his opponent prepared him a wrench, forcing his body and shoulders into the mat, when in a desperate move he got out of what could become his opponent's pin and got him by the back. Morales, as the other kids at Corporal didn't seem to want to only escape a difficult situation, he wanted always to use it as the beginning of a counter-attack. More than the mere obligation of wrestling rules, he seemed to never want to wait for the referee to say he should combat, he seemed to want something that could be permanent for his life. Some initiative, after all. This initiative led him to pin his opponent at 2:34.
Galhardo's match was not any different. Almost pinned twice, he could settle the score at 1:52, taking points out of opponent by forcing him, God knows how, to passivity. Zangrandi elbowed me gently as it was his habit, smiling and pointing at Galhardo's opponent's stunned face. Galhardo was just waiting for him as he returned from the position and two were set to fight. At 2:11, he ended the match, twisting his opponent's arm real hard, forcing him to give it up because of the pain. Other results were: Zangrandi winning for higher score, Panotti pinning at 1:12, Figueira pinned at 3:01. Figueira lost another match and won the others, three of them, one for pinning, others for higher score. Corporal got the better out of Cobras in the end and it was thrilling to watch them receive the medals. Panotti was 1st, Silveira, from Cobras was 2nd, Galhardo and Morales were 3rd and Zangrandi was 4th. The players got the medals as incentive as the game was friendly, but each player had the value for each medal in his memory. "People can even take away medals from you, but the memory of what we did to get to them", said Zangrandi to me, at the restaurant we chose to have lunch, "not even time can take away from us."

Us and them | One of these things

Radio Universal: The Making Of A Thousand Gods.