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Feb 7, 2009
CARY — After placing sixth in the state as a freshman and helping Cary win the 2006 individual state tournament championship, Gabe Brotzman thought nothing over his next three years as an Imp wrestler would top that.
Ah, teenage naïveté.
Cary has since won two more individual state championships to go along with two dual team state championships, and winning them both again in the coming weeks isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
The Imps, winners of 102 straight dual matches, will wrestle in Saturday’s dual team state championship for the ninth straight year and 14th time since the tournament started in 1990. They will meet Matthews Butler (21-3), at Cary High at 6 p.m, and on Feb. 21, Cary will be among the handful of favorites to contend for the title at the individual state tournament in Winston-Salem.
At the epicenter of Cary’s most recent run of success are the team’s only two seniors — the 152-pound Brotzman and heavyweight Eloheim Palma. In their careers, their teams have gone a staggering 141-1 in dual matches. Their only loss was to Davie County in the 2006 state final.
“It’s amazing,” Brotzman said. “When I came on the team, we won the individual state title, and I was like, ‘It can’t get better than this.’ Then every year, we’ve increased. Our guys have the mentality, that’s what Cary does. That’s what Cary wrestling is. Every year, I’ve seen our guys pull together, especially at the end when it gets toughest, when we have the toughest competition and the toughest tournaments. Everyone just comes together and does their part.”
As sophomores, Brotzman and Palma were a part of Cary’s landmark 2007 team that went 37-0, destroyed West Forsyth 52-9 in the dual team state final, then produced four champions at the state tournament two weeks later. It was among the best teams in Jerry Winterton’s 28-year tenure at Cary.
Last season, in what was supposed to be a down year for Cary, the Imps went 30-0, beat Davie County 40-27 in the dual team final, then produced five champions two weeks later at the state tournament.
“I didn’t know how last year was going to turn out, and we ended up having five state champions,” Palma said. “This team came back, we’ve got a lot of young guys and we have our doubts here and there, but Cary’s Cary. I’m excited.”
This year again, allegedly was a down year for the Imps. Yet this team is 35-0 and has three wrestlers ranked No. 1 — 103-pound sophomore Ben Creed (47-1), Brotzman (49-1) and Palma (53-0) — in NCMat.com’s Super 32 rankings, and 160-pounder Matt Colvard (49-2) is No. 2 in his weight class.
“Whenever people are like, this is going to be a down year, that’s when Cary has, historically, come through,” Brotzman said. “They overcome that because they look up at the wall and see those state champions, and are like, ‘We don’t want to be the team that is the down year. We want to do everything we can to win the state championship.”
Though Winterton didn’t know what he’d have last fall at the start of the season, he’s not surprised how this team has come together.
“I’m pleased we’ve accomplished what we have because I don’t think I thought we’d be sitting where we are now,” Winterton said. “Looking at Panther Creek, New Bern, Riverside and the teams we’ve wrestled against in other tournaments or dual meets, we’re just barely squeaking by them. They may be better teams, but our guys have done enough to have our lineup right. I’m sure there’s times when one of our guys would have liked to sit out, but they haven’t.”
While Brotzman and Palma have enjoyed astounding team success, both have thrived individually, too.
Palma is the No. 1 heavyweight in the country. He is the two-time reigning 4-A state heavyweight champion and a two-time all-American with a career record of 208-12. If he wins the heavyweight state title again this year, he will become Cary’s first three-time state champion.
Gentle and soft-spoken off the mat, Palma is an absolute menace on it. While many heavyweights take a more cautious approach, Palma attacks. His strength and quickness have overwhelmed anyone in his path. In his four matches during the dual team tournament, Palma pinned three of them in a grand total of 1:40 (the fourth win was by forfeit).
Brotzman is a three-time state qualifier, with a best finish of second in the state last year, and he has a 209-29 career record. After losing 16 matches as a freshman, he’s only lost 13 since. While he lacks the brute strength of Palma, Brotzman makes up for in technical ability and guile. In his regional final match on Thursday, he built a 15-3 lead through two periods — thanks to six takedowns and a near fall — before pinning his opponent with 26 seconds remaining in the match.
Though their season and high school careers are nearing an end, Palma isn’t quite ready to reflect.
“For me, it doesn’t mean anything until the last one,” he said. “I’ll be very upset and sad if we don’t finish up on top this year.”
Contact Tim Candon at 821-8697 or tcandon@wral.com.
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