Reich follows in footsteps of brothers

November 25th 5:17 pm | Van Williams

With both of his older brothers being former state champion wrestlers for Kotzebue High School, Brett Reich took his fair share of abuse growing up.

He didn't know he was being molded into a winner.

Now 16, Reich is the state's top-ranked 106-pounder shooting to continue his family's legacy.

The super sophomore enters the Thanksgiving break with a 26-2 record and last week in Palmer earned third place at the prestigious Lancer Smith Memorial Tournament, a predominately 4A event featuring the very best wrestlers in Alaska.

"The competition there was pretty tough," Reich said. "The Lancer Smith kept me humble; there's a lot of guys just as good or even better, which shows me that I have to keep getting better."

He was top-ranked wrestler at 106 - a rare and impressive feat for a 3A kid - and started off with a bang, pinning each of his opponents from Anchorage Christian and West Anchorage in the first half minute.

Reich was the only member of the Huskies to advance to the semifinals.

In the final four, he dropped a 17-11 decision to East Anchorage's Brennan Girard to deny him a trip to the championship match.

Reich said he was overcoming strep throat and wasn't completely healthy, but admitted it may not have mattered in this slugfest.

"He was just really good," Reich said. "He was pretty quick on his feet. He was faster and strong(er) than I intended and he took me down a lot."

That loss knocked him into the consolation finals, where Reich pinned senior JD Wood of North Pole in 2 minutes, 42 seconds.

"For me that was one of the best matches I ever wrestled," Reich said. "I didn't really get nervous. I just went out there and wrestled."

For Reich, overcoming anxiety is sometimes his biggest battle. On occasions the soft-spoken underclassmen will look at the brackets and get intimidated by opponents from the big schools.

But those days appear to be long gone.

"Before the consolation finals I sat down and thought about wrestling and how, I don't know, that stuff doesn't matter," he said. "I just need to wrestle."

The youngest of three boys, Reich never worried about challenging one of his older brothers, both state champs.

Herman, aka PJ, won his in 2006. Brandon won his in 2009.

Young Brett didn't always want to follow in their footsteps, though. When he was in elementary school he wanted to be a cross-country runner.

"As I got older I started getting better and, I don't know, I guess I started liking the sport a little bit more," Reich said.

As his love for wrestling grew, so did his relationship with his brothers.

"They are mostly why I'm better," Reich said. "If I'm cutting weight, they tell me what I'm doing wrong. And after my matches ... I would kind of review them with PJ and he would tell me what I needed to work on."

Sometimes they break down new moves in the middle of the living room.

"One time we got boxing gloves and PJ and Brandon were boxing around then kind of knocked Brandon out," Reich said with a laugh. "We kinda had to move them so mom wouldn't see."

Such is life as one of the boys.

"My brothers are always picking on me and my mom tells them that one day I'm going to be bigger than them," Reich said.

Who knows? Maybe he will win more state titles.

"I don't really feel pressure about what my brothers did," he said. "I thank them. They are the reason I'm good. PJ always tells me that they're not the ones out there, that I'm the one who is wrestling."

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Reich follows in footsteps of brothers