Cox's Jeske is most touted wrestler

VIRGINIA BEACH

To turn Brandon Jeske into one of the country's top wrestlers, his family ran its car into the ground.

The 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan sits in front of Tanya Birchett's house, no longer able to handle long trips. It finally conked out last summer, just a few miles short of its destination, though the family forgets that final location.

Brandon believes it was Fargo, N.D. Tanya, his mother, thinks it was Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where the Walsh Ironman takes place.

"We actually had to get a new car," Jeske said. "It would stop in the middle of anywhere. We would take a couple of kids around the country, take the back seats out and make it like a little bed area. It was like a little mobile home."

This weekend, Jeske's travel will be much more reasonable. He leads the Cox High School wrestling team to Fairfax for the Group AAA state tournament, a two-day event that begins today at Robinson Secondary School.

Just a sophomore, he'll enter as the event's most touted wrestler. He's ranked No. 6 in the country at 130 pounds by Intermat, the highest ranking for any Virginia wrestler.

Wrestling since he was 7 has allowed Jeske to transition fluidly from one hold to the next and make it nearly impossible to grab an ankle or wrist.

"He's like wrestling water," said Cox junior 112-pounder Cody Stageberg, a two-time Eastern Region champion. "He's just so slick."

Jeske is commonly described as a natural, but the journey toward the top was a long one. The odometer reads 215,000 miles.

Birchett racked up most of them, getting Jeske to practices and around the country while also taking care of his two autistic siblings. Jeske's coaches - and the family has worked with plenty - unanimously laud her as being supportive without being soft.

"I grew up playing sports - travel softball," Birchett said. "When he fell down, it wasn't, 'Oh, are you OK?' It was, 'Oh, you're all right.' "

Jeske works with Cox coaches Matt Small and Carlos Eason during the season, often staying after practice. When that isn't enough, he seeks out Michael Martin, a former Old Dominion wrestler, for more drilling.

During the offseason, he drives to Richmond to work with former Great Bridge wrestler Mark Strickland, his longest-serving coach. In the summer, he does three sessions at The Granby School, where Jeske has taken down - and been taken down by - college All-Americans.

Earlier in his career, Jeske placed at events, but never won. More recently, as his reputation developed, he sometimes struggled when targeted by talented, but lesser-known, wrestlers.

Over the past year, though, Jeske flourished in the most pressure-packed situations. He won a pair of freestyle national titles in 2010, one at Fargo and the other in Akron, Ohio. And at the Eastern Region tournament, he looked quite comfortable with his role as favorite.

As he bounced around before the match, iPod buds in his ears, he wore a placid expression. An hour earlier, he slept on a hard wooden bleacher at Oscar Smith, lying horizontally across the hard step, his gym bag serving as a pillow.

"Everyone roots for the underdog, but it's gotten easier," Jeske said. "I used to get pretty nervous if I was wrestling a kid that was legit. I didn't want to lose. Now I'm wrestling just to win."

Chris Carlson, (757) 446-2367, chris.carlson@pilotonline.com