Gift Ideas for Wrestling Senior.

It seems like the gifts you have mentioned are quite prominent or visible, when one walks into a room. You can see the blanket, the pillowcase, and it's quite apparent to the casual visitor that this kid was in a sport. So maybe the dopp kit seems too private or personal to the other mom. Toiletries usually go in a shower caddy, or in a bathroom cabinet, and maybe the other mom realizes that although it would be a nice gift, it's not "visible" enough.

So, thinking about visible things, things that would make a friend say "oh, you were on the ________ team", how about a personalized (engraved) coffee thermos or high end water bottle (not a cheap plastic one but a better one), or a masculine type of photo frame, something for their car (if both guys have a car) like a seat cover in the school colors or a license plate frame that's customized? Or, get a great photo of the two of them (or their whole team and coach), and photoshop it to look like it's vintage (sepia tones) or make the photo into a sticker for their laptop or make it into any one of the photo gifts that Costco and places like Shutterfly offer.

An engraved money clip or a wallet or a framed team photo with all the other kids signatures/messages on the matting.

My son just got a senior gift at his hockey banquet. As part of senior night a few weeks prior, each senior player was called out onto the ice one a time and met his family on the ice, gave his mom (or grandma or whatever female was there) a bouquet of flowers and they took a family photo. The gift for the boys was that photo, in a frame. The budget for this is lower than yours, but if you have a photo of each boy that would be appropriate, you could have it framed in a nice, personalized frame (their name, number, high school name, the year, etc.) and give that. I figured that my son would think it's hokey and it would get buried in his room but I am happy to say that it has earned a spot on his desk.

I've used The Personalization Mall before with good experience. Two things came to my attention there.

One was a monogrammed bathrobe. You could get a nice robe for each of them at the store of your choice and have them monogrammed some place local if you didn't want to buy them from a website.

Another nice gift there was a personalized wooden pen set. It's a wood pen in a matching case. I think it was $29.99. My husband and one of my sons have been given a similar gift. Very nice and well received.

The "hot" gift right now are the Yeti tumblers. You can order an engraved tumbler off of Etsy, but they are not cheap. If you buy one locally, you can order a personalized decal, it just won't last as long as engraving.

I have a senior wrestler too, although we have only ever done senior gifts for the cheer team. It would be hard to come up with different gifts for three different sports seasons! How about a personalized duffle bag? I like the ideas about a toiletries bag and other picture keepsakes too.

Ok, admittedly I DON'T have a good feel for these things - so forgive me if my idea isn't great.
iTunes gift cards?
See, through the years you accumulate a lot of memory things that just kind of end up sitting in a box somewhere eventually.
Our son's in 11th grade and already has 2 drawers full of signed tee shirts, class memories, etc.
He's going to eventually move to college and it'll sit in a couple boxes until he has a house of his own when I will send him his boxes and then they will sit in his basement/attic/closet for years until his future wife sorts through it and possibly probably tosses it out.
So something they can use for what they individually they might NEED for the here and the now - is something I see nothing wrong with.

what about engraved wrestling belts, not too elaborate obviously or it could get pretty expensive. letus know what you decide :-) i dont know yet if my girls will want to do anything like that.

i love the idea of a personalized leather kit. or a really good quality hoodie with some sort of wrestling logo and their names.
khairete
S.

We did a nice backpack with name embroidered for our senior wrestlers. It had a wrestling logo on it but my son continues to use it to this day.

Congrats on steering the gifting away from college themes. I'm sure there are plenty of other graduates who felt a little uncomfortable if they were going somewhere besides college - military, jobs, maybe a service program like Peace Corps or AmeriCorps.

Sounds like the other mom wants something to display? I also wonder if your military son will be allowed to have a lot of personal items anyway - dopp kit, picture frames? I don't know what's permitted especially in boot camp/basic training. Even the water bottle or car accessory idea is probably of very limited applicability for a military recruit. Is there a way to find out from the recruiting office?

I think the one thing they all have in common is graduating so I wonder about a personalized picture frame or cube. For example, this one lets you choose a quote from several suggested options or write your own. http://www.personalizationmall.com/Engraved-Graduation-Ph...

Would it be possible for you to each give your kid the same gift, but change the quote? Or isn't that allowed? I can see if there are 12 or 15 kids, but 2? And how will the coaches know for sure anyway? After all, the photos won't be the same!

Good luck!