Brady arousing attention in and beyond Chandler
By Steve Burks, Tribune
“Hey, you gotta watch this guy,” one Mesa High student said, nudging his friend away from another conversation. “He’s a beast.”
The whole group perked up as Dalton Brady jogged to the middle of the wrestling circle during a Jan. 12 duel at Mesa.
“Watch this.”
A sophomore at Chandler, Brady has developed a well-earned reputation in Arizona wrestling circles. When he’s on the mat, people pay attention. They have to, because many of his matches are over before you know it, like his 39-second pin of Mesa’s Kevin Hale that had the group of Mesa students nodding their heads.
Brady has already reached the highest level for a high school wrestler, going 39-1 and winning the 103-pound state championship in 5A Division I last season as a freshman — the only freshman in all of 5A to win a state title. This season, Brady is at 112 pounds and has yet to lose a match heading into this weekend’s Payson Invitational (28-0).
“I just go out there and wrestle my match, I don’t worry about the crowd, but I’m excited that they will come to watch me,” Brady said. “That makes me want to work harder toward my goals of showing people that I can perform under pressure and at a high level.”
On Jan. 15, Brady avenged the only loss of his high school career, winning the championship of the Flowing Wells Invitational (arguably the best regular season tournament in Arizona) with a 6-5 win over Safford’s two-time state champ, Trey Andrews. It was in the 2010 finals at Flowing Wells that Andrews handed Brady a controversial 3-2 loss. The final point came on a stalling penalty on Brady that had the crowd howling.
“I hate losing with all my heart,” Brady said. “I will do anything not to lose. I can’t stand it. It pushes me a lot.”
While Brady draws a lot of enjoyment from the team aspect of high school wrestling, his personal focus is on the spring and summer, when he can see where he stands on a national level. This past spring, Brady stood tall at the Fila Cadet Nationals in Akron, Ohio, placing third in the 101.25-pound (46 kilograms) division. His two losses came to the eventual national champion.
“His focus is on the national level,” Chandler coach Vidal Mejia said. “If that’s your focus, everything else will take care of itself.”
Mejia calls Brady “one of the quickest kids I’ve ever seen wrestle. He’s so lightning quick, he has that first step and he’s there before they can react.”
In typical wrestling fashion, Brady started wrestling at age 8 and really took a shining to it around age 11. The quickness is natural, but his biggest area of improvement is his strength, which he’s working on this season.
“Wrestling my bigger teammates like (140-pounder) Alex (Buelna) or (119-pounder) Max Mejia, wrestling guys like that make you improve your strength,” Brady said. “I have to get the feel for the bigger, stronger people.”
In the wrestling room, Brady may get worked over by bigger, stronger teammates, but all of that is reversed come match time. In most matches, Brady’s speed surprises and his strength overwhelms the opponents. Couple all of that with a confidence that has been honed by a lot of wins and a lot of hard work and you can understand why people sitting in the opposing bleachers take notice when he’s on the mat.
“Last year, I think I was a little more nervous and wanted to prove something and I think I proved it,” Brady said. “This year, I’m going to go in and throw caution to the wind.”
The whole group perked up as Dalton Brady jogged to the middle of the wrestling circle during a Jan. 12 duel at Mesa.
“Watch this.”
A sophomore at Chandler, Brady has developed a well-earned reputation in Arizona wrestling circles. When he’s on the mat, people pay attention. They have to, because many of his matches are over before you know it, like his 39-second pin of Mesa’s Kevin Hale that had the group of Mesa students nodding their heads.
Brady has already reached the highest level for a high school wrestler, going 39-1 and winning the 103-pound state championship in 5A Division I last season as a freshman — the only freshman in all of 5A to win a state title. This season, Brady is at 112 pounds and has yet to lose a match heading into this weekend’s Payson Invitational (28-0).
“I just go out there and wrestle my match, I don’t worry about the crowd, but I’m excited that they will come to watch me,” Brady said. “That makes me want to work harder toward my goals of showing people that I can perform under pressure and at a high level.”
On Jan. 15, Brady avenged the only loss of his high school career, winning the championship of the Flowing Wells Invitational (arguably the best regular season tournament in Arizona) with a 6-5 win over Safford’s two-time state champ, Trey Andrews. It was in the 2010 finals at Flowing Wells that Andrews handed Brady a controversial 3-2 loss. The final point came on a stalling penalty on Brady that had the crowd howling.
“I hate losing with all my heart,” Brady said. “I will do anything not to lose. I can’t stand it. It pushes me a lot.”
While Brady draws a lot of enjoyment from the team aspect of high school wrestling, his personal focus is on the spring and summer, when he can see where he stands on a national level. This past spring, Brady stood tall at the Fila Cadet Nationals in Akron, Ohio, placing third in the 101.25-pound (46 kilograms) division. His two losses came to the eventual national champion.
“His focus is on the national level,” Chandler coach Vidal Mejia said. “If that’s your focus, everything else will take care of itself.”
Mejia calls Brady “one of the quickest kids I’ve ever seen wrestle. He’s so lightning quick, he has that first step and he’s there before they can react.”
In typical wrestling fashion, Brady started wrestling at age 8 and really took a shining to it around age 11. The quickness is natural, but his biggest area of improvement is his strength, which he’s working on this season.
“Wrestling my bigger teammates like (140-pounder) Alex (Buelna) or (119-pounder) Max Mejia, wrestling guys like that make you improve your strength,” Brady said. “I have to get the feel for the bigger, stronger people.”
In the wrestling room, Brady may get worked over by bigger, stronger teammates, but all of that is reversed come match time. In most matches, Brady’s speed surprises and his strength overwhelms the opponents. Couple all of that with a confidence that has been honed by a lot of wins and a lot of hard work and you can understand why people sitting in the opposing bleachers take notice when he’s on the mat.
“Last year, I think I was a little more nervous and wanted to prove something and I think I proved it,” Brady said. “This year, I’m going to go in and throw caution to the wind.”
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