Missouri wrestling redshirt junior Connor Brown, 125-pounds, has been wrestling since he was a toddler, watching his cousins and father wrestle growing up. He found that while he was smaller than most wrestlers, he could use technique and skill to win his matches. 

“Watching them brought me into it,” Brown said. “I stuck with it when I was young and fell in love and have been doing it ever since.”

Now that Brown is a collegiate wrestler, he looks forward to seeing his parents in the stands, remembering how they helped him become the wrestler he is today. They taught him that whether he wins or loses, it is important to have fun and know they love him no matter what. 

“[My family and I] look at it like it’s our dream,” Brown said. “It’s a team thing, [they are] my No. 1 team, and they’ve been supporting me from day one throughout everything. When I step out on that mat, I’m not only stepping out there for my team and coaches, but also for my family behind me.”

After high school, Brown wrestled at North Dakota State University, then transferred to Wisconsin his sophomore year when head coach Chris Bono and assistant head coach Jon Reader began leading the Badgers. However, as Brown continued wrestling, he fell out of love with the sport and left Wisconsin before his junior year.

“[Bono and Reader] treated me with respect and did what they could to get me to be the best wrestler I could be,” Brown said. “I just fell out of it and thought I [was] done with the sport.”

Brown left Wisconsin and moved back home to Oak Grove, Missouri, where he found a passion for coaching younger wrestlers in the area.  

“It was really fun,” Brown said. “You learn a lot as a coach because you’re critiquing yourself and your knowledge of what you know to help somebody else.” 

During his time off, Brown continued to practice with the high schoolers and improve his skills without knowing if he would compete again. Every day, he put his body through the same training he would have done had he still been wrestling in college. 

Toward the end of his hiatus, Brown wondered: “‘Why are you still doing this? You’re still going to practice and wrestling; why not just go out there again?'” 

He then texted Missouri head coach Brian Smith and asked him if he could come to Columbia to talk about enrolling at Missouri and walking onto the team.

“I wanted to finish out my career and finish what I had [begun],” Brown said. “I wanted to be a college wrestler and wanted to finish school.”

Brown started his first season, 2019-2020 at Missouri, weighing in at 133 pounds and went 10-1. The following season, at 125 pounds, he went 6-2. However, he suffered a season-ending ankle injury after finishing his last practice before the 2021 MAC Championship, where he was ranked No. 19 in the nation. 

Redshirt freshman Noah Surtin, 125-pounds, stepped in and went to the championship with a three-match win streak, two of which ended in a major decision and a fall. 

“The layoff was beneficial because I let my body heal, and I could watch more videos and find new ways to get better while [healing],” Brown said. “This year [the ankle injury] hurt me more than I expected because I hadn’t been on my feet for two months, and then I couldn’t do anything for another two months.” 

Brown found that through his ankle injury, he could focus on becoming who he needed to be for the team and himself as he starts to think about life after graduation.

“Right now I’m not in the starting lineup; I’m behind Noah, [who] has done a phenomenal job this year,” Brown said. “I’ve learned to be there for my teammates when they need me, and when they don’t need me. For me, it’s being there for the next guy and not being selfish.”

Brown lives by the Terry Brands, American Olympic wrestler, quote, “You get what you earn.” He was able to relate this to his wrestling career and found he will not get what he wants if he does not work for it. 

“You have to put in the time and effort if you want to, and that’s the satisfaction that you get at the end of the day when you finally accomplish something that you’ve been looking forward to,” Brown said. 

Brown has struggled to maintain his weight throughout his career. He started at 125 pounds, then transitioned to 133 pounds and is currently at 125 pounds. The fluctuations caused Brown to take his diets and training seriously to avoid jumping from class to class.  

“I was pretty undersized for any weight class at 125. Throughout [freshman] year, I started to fill into the weight class and grow, and by the end of the year, I got up to like 140 or so, and throughout college, it’s about maintaining,” Brown said he realized. “… One thing I had to learn throughout my career is you have to eat and drink [consistently].”

Before his ankle injury, he had also faced a season limiting injury in his shoulder during his career, and while they were accidents, it was a mental block Brown had to face to come back stronger. 

“The layoffs were the hardest part for me because I couldn’t do anything,” Brown said. “In my lifetime that I’ve been wrestling, I haven’t taken off maybe more than two, three months max, so to then have eight to 10 months [off] was crazy to me. [I had to have] mental toughness especially because my shoulder surgery was during COVID, and we weren’t down here [in Columbia].”

During the 2019-2020 season, while Brown was healing from his shoulder injury, the team held multiple Zoom calls discussing books they read and talking about the importance of mental health, which helped take his mind off of his injuries. 

Brown used the time to study his film and see where he could improve when finally back on his feet. He hopes his experiences will help other wrestlers who may struggle with injuries or face mental blocks. 

Brown is in his third year with Missouri, and while at one point he thought his career was over, Smith helped show him what it meant to wrestle with purpose and still have fun. 

“We [go over] a lot of techniques and positions and [strategies to] learn more about the sport,” Brown said. “Coach Smith doesn’t just make us grow on the mat, but also makes us grow off the mat. [He] doesn’t just care about us as wrestlers, but cares about how we’re going to excel later in life.”

Brown will graduate later this year and is looking forward to being able to relax after pushing himself to his best on the mat. He has considered different occupations and ways he can still be involved in wrestling once he walks off the mat for the last time. 

“I’ve thought about a couple things, either teaching and coaching, or my parents have a farm back home that I might go work on and then coach on the side,” Brown said. “It just depends, but everything comes back to wrestling because that’s what I’ve done in my life, and I would love to give back to the younger generations coming up in wrestling.” 

While Brown recently has not been able to compete as frequently as he has in the past, he has been able to find a purpose for his life in this season by coaching the younger wrestlers and picking them up when they are down. 

“These past three years have been awesome,” Brown said. “I’ve grown so much as a wrestler and person by learning through the coaches and my teammates. Those are the guys that get me up in the morning, and we help each other out. I moved down here, and I haven’t looked back since. It’s been a great experience these past three years and I wouldn’t change it.”

Edited by Riley Gearhart | rgearhart@themaneater.com