Head Wrestling Coach Jason Warthan said it seems somewhat of an anomaly having so many brothers on the team. He said there are a lot of younger brothers who come to meets and camps to watch their older brothers, so the relationship with them starts early. He said he hopes this trend continues because there are some younger brothers that have lots of talent.
“One of the biggest compliments we can get as a program [is] when somebody feels strong enough about our program that they recommend it to their brothers to come here and follow in their footsteps,” Warthan said.
The team currently has a 2-0 record; they won against Glenville State and Mercyhurst on Nov. 10, according to UIndy Athletics with their next match on Dec. 17. According to Warthan a lot of the wrestlers on the team are from Indiana and hang around the sport. When there is an older brother that is good, there is usually a younger brother following in their footsteps, Warthan said.
Warthan said there is so much pride in family and it is important to keep records of their wins and career accomplishments because of that pride, it pushes the wrestlers to work harder. It seems important to the families to have the brothers on the same team, he said.
“If it was just an individual record [in the record book], I don’t think anyone would care as much but when you’re fighting for your brother and your family, it just seems [to have] more pride about it,” Warthan said
The wrestling record book goes back to 1961, with the Graves brothers, according to UIndy Athletics. It says that the Kieffer brothers have the most wins at 179. Additionally, the Lutgring family has the most pins at 50. The wrestling record book also says the Bailey brothers have 71 wins and 28 pins, according to UIndy Athletics.
Sixth-year wrestler Breyden Bailey and his brother, Logan Bailey, have been wrestling together for 17 years, Bailey said. In high school, he said that it was nice to have his brother on the team with him. Now in college, Bailey said his brother made the decision to come to UIndy to wrestle and it has brought them closer.
“It’s been really really cool, I really like having him on the team with me,” Bailey said. “It gives us a really close bond and it brings us together.”
Warthan said that having brothers on the team brings everyone closer together. It helps bridge the gap between the freshman and seniors. Bailey said he thinks the team is a close group and having all these brothers on the team really helps.
“We’re already all pretty close and it’s even better to have your brothers because you push each other and it’s kind of cool to have a similar feature with the people on the team,” Bailey said.
