Olympus Junior High wrestling team looks to clinch 20th consecutive district title

Olympus Junior High wrestling team looks to clinch 20th consecutive district title

(Melissa Hilton)


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HOLLADAY – The wrestling team at Olympus Junior High has a motto: "I am my team, my team is me."

For decades, this motto has served the Bulldogs well. Led by coach Robert Brough, the Olympus Junior High wrestling team has won 19 consecutive Granite School District titles and, on Saturday, will compete for their 20th, Brough told KSL.com.

Brough, who has taught physical education and served as a wrestling coach at Olympus for 25 years, said he doesn’t like talking about upcoming competitions because he doesn’t want to jinx the team. Brough was, however, willing to discuss what sets his team of seventh- through ninth-grade students apart.

Brough motivates his students to “practice longer” and “work harder” than their competitors.

“We condition really hard on a daily basis,” the coach said. “So I would think that that was one of the biggest things (that sets us apart).”

What sets Brough apart as a coach is that “I really, really focus on the basics,” he said. “I don’t teach like fancy wrestling moves or stuff like that.”

It has been a tough year for the team, Brough said. While the wrestling team typically consists of 40-50 boys, there are only 22 on the team this season.

“It’s getting fewer and fewer, which is kind of sad,” Brough said. “So this is one of the smallest teams I’ve had. It’s kind of hurting all over the district."

For Brough, it is upsetting to see low enrollment numbers for a sport he has seen change lives.

“I think wrestling is a very unique sport,” he said. “And if a kid really dedicates himself in that sport, it’s a life-changing thing. Wrestling changes kids' lives for the better — and it changes coaches' lives for the better, too.”

Brough said he has had former students reach out to him and tell him that wrestling helped them get through other challenging things in their lives, such as serving an LDS Church mission or going to college. They get through difficult times by saying “If I can survive a wrestling practice, I can survive this,” he said.

Roger Davies, whose son is on the Olympus wrestling team, said he has seen his son’s confidence grow “by leaps and bounds” since he started working with coach Brough.

“The parents on the team have told me similar experiences with their children,” Davies said in an email.

When it comes to his son’s mentor, Davies said he “could not handpick a better one (than) Coach Brough.”

“Is he perfect?” Davies asked. “Maybe not, but then again maybe he is.”

Some students have said the Olympus Junior High wrestling practices are “harder than the high school practices,” Davies said. Brough is a tough coach, yet when a student fails, he “doesn’t beat the kid down, but lifts him up and they try again.”

Coach Brough, who said he wrestled a little bit in junior high school but never pursued it further, said he wants his students to learn the value of seeing something through, even when it gets difficult.

“It’s so hard,” Brough said about wrestling. “It’s so physically and mentally demanding that they truly believe they can accomplish anything when they get done with three years in this program.”

Hard work and healthy superstition have gotten Brough and his wrestlers this far and, barring a jinx, the 22 wrestlers at Olympus Junior High may just find themselves this year’s Granite School District champions, once again.

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