As there parent of a wrestler a LONG time ago, I can relate completely. My son was pretty good but it was always hard to watch. For me, I hated the weekend of the District tournaments where he was top 4 or going home. A very hard sport.
What I can say has two parts.
1) Enjoy the journey. Those 4 years in HS go by much faster than you will ever know. Actually when I look back on it, his entire wrestling career went by in the blink of an eye.
2) If you are the coach/Dad, my suggestion is to do what Tony DiGiovanni did at Solon when his son was on the mat. He left the chair and let the assistant coaches take over. Again, enjoy the moment and love the child for what they are doing. Actually be very glad that they are doing something with you. It is not about the parent in us, it is about the child and the lessons they learn.
Great topic, appreciate the responses and I totally relate, I've coached hundreds of kids at all levels over the years, but boy did things get real when coaching my own kid. I recall my son's first tournament ever- he was 6, and I could not sleep a wink the night before because I was so filled with anxiety. Had I done enough to prepare him? What if he gets hurt? What if he hates this sport? What if he steps over a whizzer? What if he loses to a girl? What if he can't make 45, and has to bump up to 49? Who else will be in his bracket? Is it creepy to be looking at a 6 year old's Track wrestling profile? Should I tape his shoe laces? Did I pack his headgear? Bring 2 singlets in case he bleeds on one? Crazy thoughts......and as usual I stressed about nothing important. I realized eventually to emphasize training over competition, and effort over winning and most importantly that it can not mean more to me than it does to him. Also, frankly as we both witnessed so many crazy dysfunctional parent/ kid interactions, I began to feel pretty good about my level of insanity, and I like to think he started to appreciate my style of fatherhood. All a parent/coach can really do is show them the way and at some point it either takes or it does not. When he was young, we always tried to hit McDonalds on the way home from tourneys which some days was the highlight of the day. As my son approached high school, I purposely made an effort NOT to talk about technique or strategy unless he came to me and asked first. Not easy, but I knew he had many amazing coaches around him, who might say the exact same thing as I would, but knowing their message was received differently because it wasn't coming from his dad. I think there's a natural evolutionary thing that makes teenage boys automatically consider the opposite of any advice their father shares with them. I definitely had it with my dad, and my son has it with me. My role became helping him to prepare himself to compete outside the room such as nutrition, weight cutting, recovery, stretching, and just generally be supportive. On match or tournament days, you'd never find me because I was in the far corner of the gym or arena, alone, watching the scoreboard or even watching the red and green cartoon wrestlers and score on my phone on Track. If he was winning by enough, I'd take a very cautious peek at the action. Not healthy I know, but it worked for me. Wife will never understand- but hey she married a wrestler.
Jim is right, you don't realize it when you are in the thick of it, but it goes by incredibly fast and whenever and however the journey ends my hope would be that both the parents and the kid remember it all happily, and realize what a special thing you shared together.