Brianna Gedeon- Dedication at its Finest

In a country that is infested with political correctness, its nice to talk to a girl like Brianna Gedeon . Many kids get medals for participating to show that its not whether you win or lose, its how you play the game. And while there is honor in defeat if you truly give your all, Brianna set out to show, if you give your all, you should start winning.

Brianna started her wrestling career very late. She was curious about the sport, considered it for awhile but finally in her junior year of high school, she decided to go out for the team at Division 1 school Charles F. Brush in northeast Ohio. “Our high school isn't very good at many sports to be quite honest, but one thing we do have is a solid wrestling team. Its by far one of the toughest wrestling areas in the nation.”

So despite being a girl, and being late to the sport, Brianna decided to give it a go. “My first day of practice I was a 98 pound scrawny little girl, not knowing what to expect.” 2 ½ hours later, she found out. “By the end of practice I was puking in the trash can all bruised and bloodied up. This was the most intense 2 ½ hours imaginable.” Many thought, maybe the scrawny little girl should find another sport. And that's exactly why she didn't. “I came back because everyone expected me to quit. I am no quitter, I was not about to prove people right.”

So she came back. But the practices didn't get easier. “Over time the entire football team that joined quit and our team lost about half its members.” Which is exactly what the coach at Brush High School wanted. Brianna says, “Coach weeded out the ones that couldn't cut it, that didn't have what it takes to be a wrestler.” While many boys were dropping like flies, Brianna stayed. “To everone's surprise, I was still there, coming back everyday.”

But despite the dedication, she was Brianna was still scrawny, and still new. The losses were piling up faster than the sweat. “Despite sticking out practices I was still honestly a completely terrible wrestler. That season I didn't win a single match on JV. I went 0-11. I was the only person on the team to get defeated every time I wrestled.”

It was a very difficult season. “I wanted to quit but I couldn't let myself quit without knowing what it felt like to win once. I used to go to the bathroom after losing all these matches and I'd cry because I felt like such a failure. But that gave me motivation to work even harder.”

Though she didn't win a match, her teammates had her back. “My team has always been very supportive of me. They always have tried to help me get better because they saw how hard I work. Even when I would lose they would always be there to help me, and show me what I did wrong.”

It was a nice consolation prize for Brianna. But still she hated losing. And so did her coach. “At the end of the season the coach pulled me aside and had a talk with me. He told me that he admired how I didn't quit, but honestly if I don't get beat out for varsity next year by some freshman, he doubted I would win more then 5 matches if that. In his words I would just be filling a spot.”

And that wouldn't be any spot. It would be the spot of Brian Hauser. Who is Hauser? “Hauser is our stud 103 pounder who placed placed second in both Ohio Division I states and senior nationals.”

Coach's words resonated with her. In other words, it is whether you win or lose. And Brianna was going for a win. “That conversation stuck with me. Something in me changed that day. I decided to push myself and prove everyone wrong. I was sick of being a loser. I made a promise to myself that no one would outwork me. No longer would I just go through practices but I'd push myself the entire time.”
That summer while some girls went to the beach and tanned, Brianna trained. “I got much bigger from all the serious lifting I was doing, and for 5 days a week 2 hours a day I was practicing.”

She went to weekly tournaments and something happened. Brianna actually won a few matches. Finally, Brianna had won! “It was the greatest feeling finally getting my hand raised. It was the first time that I felt like my hard work was paying off. Once I knew what it felt like to get my hand raised I started working even harder because I wanted to keep on winning.”

So she continued to work. “People knew I was working hard, but I don't think they realized just how much of an effort I was putting in.” After all that work, finally the wrestling season started. Gone was the 98 pound scrawny little girl. “I got much bigger and was much stronger than last season. I was still nothing compared to my stronger male competitors, but I was a lot stronger than I used to be.”

Her first test would be what is called the previews. The previews don't count in the standings, and aren't official matches, but a lot of people would be watching, “Its a way for our coaches to get an idea of how their team would do this season. A lot of people were watching. We had several area teams come to our Brush preview and the stands were packed with students, teachers, parents and coaches.”

So while the matches had no significance in the standings, they couldn't be more important to Brianna. “Although the matches didn't really count for anything, they meant a lot to me. Every coach who helped me in the off season was there watching and everyone who remembered me losing was there watching. I was finally able to show everyone how hard I had been working.”

It was time for Brianna to step on the match. And though she had the jitters, there was a different feeling to her first match. “It was the weirdest feeling because it felt natural to me.”

The match started and the boy shot on her right off the whistle. Instinctively, Brianna hit a hard sprawl, smashing him with her hips and got “two easy points.”

After a season of losing, Brianna knew that things were going to be drastically different this season. “At that point I started getting confident, and I knew I was going to win it. I turned him to his back several times throughout the match and I saw him just giving up after a while.” Brianna couldn't buy a win last season, and in her first match at previews, she was dominating. “He was just frustrated. Every shot he tried to shoot I scored off of. I did not shoot once the entire match.”

Brianna was having the time of her life. “I just had such an adrenaline rush the entire match. I could hear everyone cheering me on in the stands and all my teammates were watching me for the first time win a match.”

And when she finally got her arm raised in front of everyone, Brianna felt amazing. “It just felt good to for once be the superior wrestler and have everyone know it. Not only was it a great feeling that I won, but I surprised so many people. I proved everyone wrong.”

Brianna now had to prepare for her 2nd match that day. And she wasn't satisfied with just winning once. “I felt confident going into the second match. It just gave me an opportunity to surprise people even more, I don't think they expected me to win again.”

But anyone that doubted Brianna now were going to be proved wrong. Again. “My second match was just like my first. He shot on me once again I sprawled and scored 2. I kept turning him the rest of the match to get back points. It was much like the first match, I worked my same stuff on top and it was working.” And once again, she knew the match was over while it was still going on. “Yep, I knew I had it. He couldn't score on me in neutral position and he couldn't escape when I was on top and I could tell he was giving up.” Brianna ended up winning the match 9-0. “ Winning the second match felt even better because I was 2-0!”

But her day wasn't over yet. Even though she had a combined 20 points to her opponent's 0, her toughest competitor was waiting for her. He was a varsity 112 pounder. Brianna was giving away 9 pounds. This was not going to be as easy as the first two matches.

“This match I got a little nervous. I wasn't as confident. He was way bigger, but I was determined to go 3-0 that day.”

But she wasn't the only one nervous. Her opponent didn't want to face her. “He was super nervous to wrestle me. His teammates told me he didn't want to wrestle a girl, and he tried to get out of the match. Even though I was slightly intimidated by his size, I knew I had a shot at winning. I was determined to go undefeated.”

But Brianna wouldn't let him get out of it. “Yea, I wanted to get my third match! I already beat their 103, I wanted to challenge myself and wrestle their varsity 112.”


The match was intense. Her opponent had noticed Brianna scored on her opponent's shots, so he stalled the entire match. He also kept backing up so she couldn't get a shot in. At the end of two periods, the score was 0-0. Brianna was getting frustrated, but confident. “I knew I could beat him. But I didn't think I could beat him on my feet because he was stalling so bad and the ref would not call him for it. But I was pretty confident I could get the escape.”

Brianna was right, she got the escape, the she knew it was over. “There was only like 30 seconds left, he is not shooting, I'm going to win this.” The ref awarded her another point for an illegal hold, and when the match was over, it was Brianna's whose arm was going to be raised!

“I was very happy. I felt extremely accomplished because there was only a select few of us on the team who went undefeated that day. And I was the only one who didn't give up a single point. It was such a turn around from losing every match last season. It felt even better saying I beat a varsity 112.”

After three matches, none of the boys could muster a point on her. “Haha, I was so proud of that! Everyone was so suprised and a lot of people came up to me to tell me how great I did. It was a great way to start off the season, and thats when I knew I would be getting some wins this season.”

Brianna gave what she thought was her all her junior season. But it wasn't. She gave a lot, but not her all. When she gave a lot, she never won a match. When she gave her all, she found out she can not only hang with the competition, but beat them. And sometimes easily. Brianna went on to have 15 varsity wins. From 0 to 15.

And while none of her preview wins count as any of the 15, they counted for her. “For the first time I felt like I could call myself a wrestler.”