Wrestling, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Pete Rose
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning a wrestling match that went in sudden death, triple overtime to clinch first place in the eighth grade end-of-the-year tournament.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Playing on a soccer travel team that lost all 15 games, going defeated for the entire season!
Music on iPod: A good mix of Jason Aldean, Zac Brown Band, Jack Johnson and the Rolling Stones
Future plans: To become a newspaper journalist for a major news organization
Words to live by: ‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.’
One goal before turning 30: Establish a branch of the Charity Water organization in my community
One thing people don’t know about me: I am a huge baseball memorabilia collector.
Some athletes talk a big game. Some try to use words to get into the heads of their opponents.
Brennan Weiss is not big on chatter. He prefers to let his actions on the wrestling mat do all his talking for him.
“I remember a match where there was some chirping,” Wissahickon wrestling coach Anthony Stagliano said. “The other guy wanted a shot at him. A lot of kids would have said something back. Brennan said, ‘No, I’ll let him do the talking.’ He didn’t want to get into that.”
Instead of talking back, all Weiss did was go out on the mat and win the bout.
“One of the things I love about wrestling is that you can take your anger out on the mat,” Weiss said. “It doesn’t look like you’re angry at the person because it’s part of the sport. I do remember that meet, (and) that kid and I, we do have a little bit of a history. I’ve been able to keep my temperament and take it out on the mat.
“That’s what people are going to remember, what happened on the mat, not what kind of games you’re playing before the match. On the mat is what matters, that’s what I pride myself in.”
He’s making quite a career out of it, too. Weiss – a four-year varsity wrestler who competed at 112 as a freshman but now grapples at 152 – first stepped onto the mats in seventh grade with the intention of getting himself stronger for baseball. A three-sport athlete until 10th grade, Weiss gave up soccer in the fall in order to better prepare for wrestling, which became his main athletic focus.
Over the course of his four-year career, Weiss has racked up the wins. A captain on this year’s team, Weiss carried a 20-2 record for the season heading into Wednesday’s meet against Upper Moreland. And while he’s not positive of his exact career totals, he knows he’s within 10 wins of the rare and major milestone of 100 career victories.
“It’s not something I’m too focused on,” he said. “It’s a goal I want to achieve; not too many guys at this school have done it so it’d be pretty cool to get my name up on that list. Hopefully, if I keep wrestling the way I’ve been wrestling, it’ll come.”
While he accumulates the victories and works toward his goal of his first trip to the PIAA State Championships, Weiss is concentrating on improving as a wrestler and being a strong leader for the 2011-12 Trojans’ squad that features his brother, freshman Connor Weiss.
“Brennan does the right thing in all the right places,” Stagliano said. “He’s a good all-around kid and he leads by example in the room. He’s going to be there for the extra workouts, he’s not going to miss practice. As far as being a captain, he’s doing everything I want out of him and I couldn’t be more happy. He’s turned into a hard-working blue-collar wrestler, and he’s added some technique this year.
“He continues to want to learn. You get some guys who think their game is pretty much down and go with what they have, but he’s there every day trying to work on a new way to move, or adding something. He’s the epitome of what you want as a kid and a wrestler.”
While the desire to keep learning is a way to improve his technique and help his team, it transcends the mat for Weiss.
“I went to a camp over the summer, and there was a guy there who was a three-time NCAA champion with all these higher level awards,” he said. “He was telling us that he went to a clinic with mostly these middle school and early high school kids, and he was showing them a move and one of the kids at the clinic showed him another way to do it. I think that’s pretty cool. And it’s not just in wrestling, it’s also in life.”
And Weiss’ life isn’t all about wrestling. He’s taking four AP classes as part of his courseload, is a member of the National Honor Society and Future Business Leaders of America, and is an editor on the school newspaper with aspirations of pursuing journalism as a profession.
“After college, there really aren’t many places wrestling can take you,” Weiss said. “When wrestling is over, what else is there for me? I know there’s something for me beyond wrestling so I want to make sure I’m preparing.”
Weiss also plays outfield for the Wissahickon baseball team. Though the squad has lost some key players, the
Trojans have high hopes that the team can return to the level it reached last spring when the team won the American Conference title for the first time in 10 years.
But first, Weiss has his own goals and expectations on the mats. Whatever he achieves, he does so by working tirelessly and quietly going about his business.
“Whatever Brennan accomplishes, it won’t be due to luck or because of a fluke, he’s going to earn everything he gets,” Stagliano said. “Some guys make it through pure talent – he’s pure work ethic and hard work.”
“I know I’m prepared when I step on the mat,” Weiss said. “I put my work in in practice and during the offseason. And before a match, I do a lot of visualizing, what moves I’m going to do, if my opponent does something, what am I going to do? It’s important to focus on yourself, you can’t be too worried about the other guy.
“But you’ve got to be smart out there. You can be as strong as you can be, but if you’re not thinking out there, you’re not going to succeed, so I’m always trying to think out there on the mat.”
Thinking, not speaking. Actions, not words. And though Weiss’ low-key style may have caused some to overlook him throughout his career, he’s making himself difficult to ignore in his final campaign on the Wissahickon mats.
“In terms of technique, maybe Brennan isn’t the guy you think of as having the best technique on our team,” Stagliano said. “But he’s got the best record, he’s ranked the highest and he’s doing the best.
“Brennan’s not a showboat. He doesn’t chirp at all. He’s got a lot of class. The things he does are the things you want your kid to do or your wrestler to do. “
And Weiss is content to slip under the radar. So long as he’s gaining the points to help the team win and doing his part to motivate his teammates, headlines and spotlights don’t really matter all that much.
“My job is to wrestle and to help my teammates out,” he said. “My goal isn’t to be a shining star or to get my name in the paper. My goal is just to be the best I can be and go as far as I can go in the postseason. I don’t need to get my name in the paper. I just want to excel on the mat.”
