Champs' grooming ground

By TERRY JONES
Published June 25, 2006

BRANDON - Brandon High's 17 state wrestling championships and 62 individual titles didn't happen by accident.

It took dedication.

It took hard work.

By coach Russ Cozart. By his wrestlers. And by hundreds of committed parents.

But it helped that most of Cozart's athletes got an early start. And for many, that start came at the Brandon Wrestling Club. For nearly three decades, state and national champions have been created by Cozart and his many assistants.

Because of the many successes of its members, the club and the Brandon High program, many of the champions have earned state and national respect.

When Brandon coach Jim Graves retired in 1980, the Eagles' consecutive win streak was 75. Cozart was named as his successor and started hanging out at the Brandon gym. At first, he didn't like what he saw.

"There were no little kids, just high school kids on the mats," Cozart said. "We started going to tournaments across the state to compete."

Cozart put ads in newspapers and sought younger brothers of other Brandon wrestlers. The Hillsborough County Recreation Department made his program and others part of its overall youth summer athletic activity and the numbers started to increase. Most clubs used names not connected to the high school program, but Cozart said because he was training neighborhood kids in the Brandon gym, he called it the Brandon Wrestling Club.

"The little guys were hard to attract, but with success of the ones there, it started to pick up and in the early 1990s it seemed to take off," he said. "Now it is very big. The last 10 years it has been getting bigger and bigger."

Brandon High, though, isn't the only beneficiary of the club. Far from it. Club members have found their way to several schools, including Durant, East Bay, Jesuit and Lakeland Lake Gibson. More than a few have claimed state titles.

The club has had other types of success, too.

In years past, Florida wrestlers were all but ignored in national competition. Because of the year-round training and competition in other states, seasonal wrestlers from Florida were considered easy prey.

That's no longer true, especially with the national success of Brandon Wrestling Club members and other stellar clubs in the Orlando and Miami areas.

Because of Cozart's success with his program and in AAU and USA Wrestling competition, Brandon Wrestling Club members have compiled more than 150 individual national championships in the past 15 years. And that success still grows.

David Craig, who went 184-0 at Brandon High and was a four-time state champion, was selected as the best high school wrestler in the nation for 2006, by both USA Wrestling and WIN Wrestling Magazine - the first Florida wrestler so honored.

He got his start at the club.

"Wrestling is part of the American culture," Cozart said. "It helps develop life lessons of confidence, discipline and a positive attitude. It flows over into the kid's grades and families, plus their future parenthood. It helps make confident community leaders for our future."

[Last modified June 25, 2006, 03:35:58]