School: Pennsbury
Football, Wrestling
Favorite athlete: Michael Strahan
Favorite team: New York Giants
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Winning the match for my team vs. Neshaminy and winning the district championship in football.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: “Winning a wrestling match by six points and getting head locked. One time (in football) I swore the ball was being thrown to me, and I dove for it only to have the receiver run right in front of me and catch the ball, making me look like an idiot.”
Music on iPod: Techno dance party stuff
Future plans: “Go to college, become successful, take over the world, find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, prove the existence of Bigfoot.”
Words to live by: “Just cause they’re strong doesn’t mean they can’t get their butt kicked. It’s not the desire to win, it’s the fear of losing.”
One goal before turning 30: Skydiving
One thing people don’t know about me: “I enjoy going to New York and seeing Broadway plays with my mom.”
Kevin Bree is not one to follow the crowd.
He’s more likely to be out in front.
“He’s not way out there on a limb,” said Pennsbury wrestling coach Joe Kiefer. “At the same time he would not be following the crowd. He would have the most fun you could have and stay within the line.
“He’s a mature kid and recognizes when he’s getting too far away from that center line. He’ll stay within appropriate boundaries, but he likes to step off that center line a little bit and have a good time.”
When the Pennsbury senior found out that the only facial hair a wrestler was allowed to have was a mustache, he grew one.
“I like to do my own thing,” said Bree. “In the end I make my own decisions.”
The mustache thing started early in the season on a road trip to West Chester Rustin.
“I had a beard and forgot to shave that day,” said Bree. “Coach said, ‘All you’re allowed to have is a well-groomed mustache,’ and I looked at him and said, ‘Well, I’m getting a mustache.’’’
He shaved the beard off, leaving just a mustache and won his match.
“I’m a very superstitious guy and I couldn’t shave it until I lost or the season was over,” he said.
“That was something he was pretty proud of and protected all year,” said Kiefer. “It was a point of levity with the officials at weigh ins. He always had a good time with that.”
Although he lost one match at districts, it wasn’t until his season-ending second loss at regionals that he shaved it off.
“I saw (Council Rock North’s Jamie Callender) and a couple of guys and they asked how I made out and I said, ‘I lost. It’s time to shave,’” said Bree.
Callender had a razor all ready and a smile on his face.
“If somebody like Jamie Callender tells you to shave, you do it,” said Bree.
The mustache brought Bree some fame during the season.
“It gave me a little publicity,” he said. “People started to know me as Mustache Man and the Kid from Pennsbury with the Mustache.”
When the Falcons had a home basketball game, Bree was one of the fans that doffed his shirt and painted letters on his chest to support the team.
Bree made the sports pages of the Courier Times. One Pennsbury player was driving on a layup and Bree appeared in the background.
“It went around school,” he said.
“He has an outgoing personality,” said Kiefer. “He’s the kind of kid that relishes that opportunity to take his shirt off, paint a letter on his chest and cheer the basketball team on, and he’ll be one of the leaders in the room and on the mat for the wrestling team.”
Bree had a slow start in wrestling, going 9-22 at 160 in his sophomore year. But as a junior he improved to 20-14.
The turning point of his 11th grade year was a 13-10 win over William Tennent’s Brenden Shirley.
“The next day at practice I’m feeling good because I got the win,” he said. “But all of a sudden the coach started yelling at me. During the course of the match I got real winded and he said stuff about my conditioning and my work ethic up to that point. It totally opened my eyes and made me realize where I was and who I wanted to be and the changes I needed to make. I’m glad it happened. He definitely woke me up.”
“That seemed to be the turning point in his high school career,” said Kiefer. “From there on he picked it up.”
As a senior Bree turned in a remarkable season. He didn’t lose a match until the District One North Tournament, when he dropped a 3-2 decision to Methacton’s Brandan Clark in the semifinals and wrestled back for third. His season ended at regionals where he went 0-2 record to finish the season at 28-3 (57-39 for his career).
“He had a tough day at regionals,” said Kiefer.
“I let myself down immensely,” Bree said. “That was the first time I made it that far, so I think I let my head get to me. The matches were a lot closer than the scores.”
Two weeks after his season ended, Bree was asked to wrestle in the 21st Annual Delaware Valley Wrestling Officials All-Star Classic, which pits the best senior Pennsylvania All-Stars against a Central New Jersey All-Star lineup.
“I was a little out of shape,” he admitted. “As it turned out, I had to go two matches. It was one more chance to go out on the mat and have some fun with some of your friends from the other schools that you met through the post-season.”
Bree was the only wrestler to compete twice, although his second appearance didn’t count in the final result, which was a 23-21 win for Pennsylvania.
“A Jersey kid got suspended from school, “ said Bree. “They didn’t think he’d be able to wrestle, so they got another kid. It turned out kid was able to wrestle. They asked me if I would wrestle twice, and I wasn’t going to say, ‘No.’”
Bree lost both bouts.
“You always want to go out and win, but as it turns out the two kids I wrestled happened to be the fourth winningest kid in Jersey and the fifth winningest kid in Jersey in their respective weight classes,” he said. “They were quality opponents. It was fun getting back on the mat one more time.”
Bree was a game-day captain in football and a captain of the wrestling team and was named First Team linebacker in football and First Team 215-pounder in wrestling.
Bree started playing football in the Pop Warner League as an offensive and defensive lineman. He was big for his age, so he was always competing against kids a year or two older.
“I’m glad I did it,” he said. “It toughened me up.”
In seventh grade he wrestled 155, but by the time he got to eighth grade he was tipping the scales at a somewhat pudgy 170.
“Eighth grade wrestling season saved my life because that’s when I stepped on the scale and saw I weighed too much, and I started cutting down,” he said.
He ended up wrestling at 155 again.
Besides being an excellent athlete, Bree is also a good student. He has a 3.6 grade point average and is a member of the National Honor Society.
Bree has yet to make a final college decision. He’s down to three schools—Albright, Lycoming or Catholic University.
“I haven’t decided yet,” he said. “I still have a few visits left.”
He plans to play football, although he hasn’t entirely ruled out wrestling, which he could probably do because all three are Division Three schools.
“If they do have a wrestling program, I probably could get involved if I really wanted to,” he said.
He expects to major in political science.
Bree said he chose small schools because “you are going to school to get an education. I’d rather have a more personal relationship with my teacher.”
And be at the front of the crowd.
