It doesn't stretch the imagination to envision a carpet resembling a wrestling mat beneath the furniture in Ron and Cindy Beard's living room.

It is a sport that has consumed the parents and their 10 children, nine of them boys, seemingly forever. Every boy is, or has been, a wrestler. Ron teaches and is the assistant coach at Central Valley.

Three of the children, senior Blake, junior Bryson and sophomore Bridger, currently make up 20 percent of the Bears' starting lineup, and the older two have already combined for five state medals.

Blake, 19, is a two-time defending state champ after finishing fifth as a freshman. Bryson, 17, was third as a frosh and second last year. Bridger, 16, just missed qualifying his freshman year.

Two brothers preceded them and another wave of five, ages 13 down to 6, is yet to come.

The size of the family, passion for the sport, the fact their children are home schooled in a Christian atmosphere, and the alliterative name choices intrigue.

"What the good Lord gave us," Cindy said of their large brood, "we've just been blessed more than we could have imagined. They've been healthy and just been great kids."

A graduate of Mead High School, Cindy met Ron while they were in college in Montana. They've been married 25 years.

As the children began to come, the idea of wrestling as a family activity took root when the boys got older. 

Ron, though primarily a football player in college, had wrestled and, says his wife, suggested they try it as a means for personal development.

"I had never been to a wrestling match, ever," Cindy said. "Once we started, they met kids and had a good time with it. It's just been great. There've been a lot of good lessons in it."

Wrestling became a means for togetherness, gaining discipline and learning the value of hard work as much as it was about sports and competition, Cindy said.

"We tried to make a family day of it," Cindy said of the weekend tournaments the boys compete in. "The little kids were not wrestling, and it was a long day. We'd pack a cooler, pack up books and games, grab a corner by the bleachers and throw a blanket down. It was, ‘We'd all get Gatorade today,' or ‘Mom's going to make cookies today.'"

Brady, now 24, was the first, and over the years the rest followed suit.

He competed at Ephrata and was followed by Brenton, 22, who finished fifth in State 2A while competing at Riverside. After the family moved to Liberty Lake, he would place third for Central Valley in State 4A. He is now competing at Northern Montana.

Blake remembers, before moving to the Spokane Valley, making the two-hour round trips out to West Valley or East Valley from Elk to seek out better practice competition.

"A lot of it," Blake said of his own success, "was looking up to (his older brothers)."

Each youngster has progressed at his own level, said their mother. Some have been more intense than others; none was pushed to continue the sport, but all remain involved.

Rounding out the clan are the only girl, Brielle, 13, and brothers Bennett, 11, Blaine, 10, Bayden, 8, and Braxton, 6.

The younger boys, who Cindy calls "peas in a pod," all weigh within a few pounds of each other and play football as well as wrestle. 

Although the sport has embraced women - girls have their own state classification now - Brielle has channeled her energy into basketball, with a goal of playing varsity at CV when she's a freshman.

"When she was 2 or 3, she thought it (wrestling) would be fun, but we said, no, no, not our girl," Cindy said. "Now she looks back and says, ‘Why did I ever think that would be fun?'"

How the children's first names all start with "B" is a story unto itself. It never was intentional. They never knew the gender before each was born, Cindy explained.

"When we had Brady and Brenton, we basically liked the names," Cindy explained. "Ron liked the name Blake for a boy so we went with that not even thinking."

Figuring no. 4 might be their last, Bryson came along. After that it was too late to turn back.

"You know when you're looking for names, it was ‘go to the B section of the baby name book,'" Cindy said with a laugh.

The decision was made to home school, in part because they wanted a Christian atmosphere, she said, and also to be able to spend more time with the children. It began as a year-to-year endeavor and burgeoned. Bryson and Bridger do take a couple classes at CV. Religion is a big part of their lives.

"I didn't start with the intention of teaching them through high school, but as we went along saw how quickly they could learn and get things done and we could have more time together as a family," Cindy said.

Money, the saying goes, can't buy happiness. As might be expected with a family their size, the Beards live modestly. They don't take fancy vacations, have the extras others expect and drive older cars. They save before they buy and if the children want something, they work to pay for it.

But they have a refrigerator full of food (you can imagine our food bill, Cindy said) and a nice home.

"We don't have a lot of stuff, but we have each other, and we have enough to get by," Blake Beard said after being named Outstanding Wrestler at Central Valley's Inland Empire Classic tournament in December.

They have their faith and the values generated from a lifetime of wrestling. What more could a family ask for?