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Wrestling power gets better

Some of the area's best transfer to Brandon after a stint at a private school.

By BOB PUTNAM

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 13, 2000

For Cesar Grajales, all roads lead to Brandon High School.

More specifically, the gym.

Grajales has his heart set on having his sons, Cesar Jr. and Eric, wrestle for the Eagles, who own the nation's longest high school winning streak in any sport. To accomplish that, he is willing to sell the family's home in Tierra Verde, move to Brandon and commute 45 minutes each way to the auto repair shop he owns in St. Petersburg.

But that is just part of the master plan. When Cesar Jr. hits Brandon next fall as a freshman, he'll already have two years of varsity wrestling experience. Grajales enrolled him at Northside Christian last year so he could wrestle varsity as a seventh-grader. He came within one match of qualifying for the state tournament.

The Grajaleses are not alone. Other families have used private schools as a farm system before hitting the big time at Brandon, where the Eagles have won 339 consecutive dual meets and own 11 state titles. David Craig, a seventh-grader who has won numerous national titles, is wrestling at Temple Heights this season. He is undefeated and already has won two tournaments.

Rocky Cozart, an eighth-grader and the son of Brandon wrestling coach Russ Cozart, also is wrestling for Temple Heights. As a seventh-grader, Cozart finished fourth at the state tournament.

Then there is Ryan Joyce. A freshman at Brandon, Joyce wrestled at Temple Heights last season and became the first eighth-grader to place at the state tournament, finishing fifth.

In two years, Grajales, Craig, Cozart and Joyce plan to join forces at Brandon.

"They're going to be so awesome in a few years," Bloomingdale coach Scot Tipton said. "It's going to be a challenge to beat them."

It's one thing to spend thousands to send a wrestler to a private school to get varsity experience.

The Grajaleses go way beyond that.

Grajales said he spends $10,000 to $15,000 a year for club fees and travel expenses for off-season tournaments. The family drives used cars instead of new, and they rarely take vacations.

"I want what's best for my kids," Grajales said. "We've given up a lot for this, but I've always felt our kids are our lives. Some people move to New York so their kids can go to the best performing arts school. We just happen to do it with wrestling. I love the sport, and my kids have grown to love the sport, too."

Grajales, 37, likes Northside Christian. Eric, a fourth-grader, and eighth-grader Melissa, the only girl in the family, go there. Grajales volunteers there as an assistant wrestling coach.

"Northside is an awesome school, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to send my kids there," he said.

But Grajales and Northside Christian also know those loyalties end in about eight months.

By August, the Grajales' new house will be completed. The move is not so bad for Cesar Jr. and Eric. Most of their friends are in the wrestling community.

"I'll miss some people at Northside, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to wrestle," Cesar Jr. said. "But I'll get over it."

For Melissa, who starred on the softball and volleyball teams, it will be tougher to say goodbye.

"I have a lot of friends here, including my best friend," Melissa said of Northside. "I'll miss them a lot. I really enjoyed my time here."

All of this is normal to Grajales. After all, his parents did the same for him.

After wrestling as a middle-schooler in New Jersey, Grajales' parents decided to move to Florida in the early 1980s. But they were not going to move to just anywhere in Pinellas County. They searched for the best wrestling school and chose Pinellas Park, then the dominant team in the county.

Grajales wrestled at Pinellas Park his sophomore and junior seasons. He said things did not work out there his senior year, so his family decided to move to Brandon in the middle of the season. And although Grajales never won a state title or placed, he quickly became a part of Brandon lore.

Grajales qualified for the state tournament in 1982 and recorded a pin before bowing out with two losses. That pin, however, gave Brandon four points, enough to edge Lynn Haven Mosley by a half-point for the school's second state title and Cozart's first. Grajales and Cozart stayed in touch. When Cozart started a toddler program so his son could wrestle as a 4-year-old, Grajales was one of the first to join. Since then, he has taken his sons to Cozart's wrestling club three nights a week during the off-season for practice.

Why would a family go to such extremes for a sport that offers little in the way of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? There's no huge pro tour with fat paychecks like golf or tennis and there's little in the way of college scholarships. Even Olympic wrestlers aren't the ones getting on the front of the Wheaties box.

"I know my kids might not get a scholarship from wrestling," said Mike Joyce, a volunteer coach at Temple Heights who is a friend of Cozart's and has spent more than $8,000 for his three sons to go to school there. "Look at the track record with wrestling. But I believe in this sport."

So does Grajales. He is the youth director for USA Wrestling, the sport's governing body.

"Wrestling is probably the last sport being pushed in this state," Grajales said. "It's a no-glory, no-money sport. But a lot of us are die-hards. We're not ready to give up. And as parents, if you have a kid who wants to wrestle, you have got to go out and find the opportunity."

From the Brandon perspective, all of this means the streak that started in 1973 seems to be in good hands. Joyce, Craig, Rocky Cozart and Cesar Grajales Jr. have wrestled together on the Brandon club since elementary school.

They have developed a tight bond and vowed to stay together in high school. Cozart and Grajales will join Joyce next fall, with Craig coming along the year after.

"I've heard stories that these guys might be coming over here," Russ Cozart said. "But I can't be worrying about next year or the year after. With the streak we have, you always have to worry about the here and now."

With Brandon crushing its opposition so far this season and that group coming up, it takes a coach with long-range vision to see a time when the Eagles might be knocked from their perch.

Even those optimistically looking that far down the road, however, should bear this in mind: Eric Grajales, still in fourth grade, is a seven-time national champion in Greco-Roman and freestyle.

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