I'm only guessing here, but when the Andrews Family of Grapevine, Tex., all get together at the dinner table, the sport of wrestling will probably be one of the topics of conversation.
You see David and Karrie Andrews have four children, and all four have, or are, wrestling on the collegiate level. That's three boys and one girl.
Cowboy heavyweight Brian Andrews, Brother Number Three has created quite an impact during his short time on the high plains. An All-American on every level he's wrestled, Brian is aiming to keep that streak going.
The Cowboys wrestle at West Virginia tomorrow, their final dual before competing in the Big 12 Championships March 7-8.
A high school All-American at Grapevine High, Brian came to Wyoming via Northeastern Oklahoma A&M where he was an All-American, and a third-place finisher at heavyweight at the National Junior College Athletic Association Championships.
Currently Andrews is nationally ranked by four different wrestling publications, and is tied for second on the Cowboys with 25 wins, five of which are pins and three more are tech falls. After finishing fourth at the Big-12 Championships a year ago, he was an NCAA qualifier in his first season with Wyoming. Thus far this season he has beaten a team-best five ranked opponents, and has won 18 of his 20 matches.
Back to the dinner table.
Brian's oldest brother, Jacob, wrestled collegiately (Ouachita Baptist, Arkansas). He's now 25 and owns his own company in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Brother Number Two, Blake, was a junior college national champion and wrestled at Oklahoma State. He's a teacher. The boys' sister, Karestin, and the youngest member of the family, is currently wrestling at Texas Wesleyan in Fort Worth.
If you asked them, I guarantee you that all three brothers are most proud of their little sister.
"She took second in the state (at 138) at Grapevine, and is now the ninth-ranked women in the country in her weight class, and she's only in her first year at Wesleyan," Brian says easily showing his pride for sis.
"There's always been competition in the family," he continues. "Blake won the national championship in junior college so he likes holding that over our heads," Brian smiles. "But I think we're all proud of each other and what we have done."
Wrestling has been very good to the Andrews family. "Mom and Dad love that fact we all have competed on the collegiate level. But what I think they like most about it is that we all really helped them pay our way through college," Brian grins.
Andrews was a football player and wrestler at Grapevine. In fact he was an All-State nose guard. "I really enjoyed playing football, but I knew in the back of my mind that wrestling would probably be my future."
Wyoming recruited him out of high school, but he opted to go the junior college route. "Oklahoma State and Wyoming both recruited me out of Northeastern, but because Wyoming recruited me out of high school, I decided to take a visit here. When I came up here I was sold.
"I really enjoy the outdoors, and I love being up here in the summer time. "Four of us (Cowboy teammates) worked here this summer for a concrete company, which is the hardest work I've ever done. But we had time to fish and enjoy being in the mountains. There's nothing like it.
"I'm not a big fan of the cold, though. That's been tough for a Texas boy to get used to, but I think I've adjusted."
At Grapevine, Andrews wrestled at 182 as a freshman, and 185 as a sophomore. "Then I got a little fat," he says smiling. So he became an All-American as a heavyweight.
Back in the day heavyweights could pretty much weigh as much as they wanted. Now the sport limits them to 285 pounds. "I think it's easier. Now when you go out there to wrestle your opponent doesn't weigh any more than you do."
Andrews' style is a bit unorthodox as he explains. "Well, I go out there and do my thing, but I'm a little different in that I'm a left-leg lead, and the majority of the guys I face are right-leg leads. I have pretty good quickness, too, and I try to use that to my advantage, so I shoot a lot. I'm not one of those heavyweights who stands around, I like to keep moving.
"I think my football background has helped. In Texas high school football there are a lot of 300-plus-pound offensive linemen that you have to move around as a defensive lineman. So it always seemed like I was going against big, strong guys. That was good experience for what I'm doing now."
Brian wrestled as a 19th seed at last year's NCAA Championships, and admits it was overwhelming. He learned a lot from that experience.
"Practice makes you better, there's no doubt, but when you can really improve is when you are competing live, that's when you get better. I think I learned one thing for sure from last year's NCAA's, and that's the mental focus that's necessary. I think I was ready physically, but I wasn't ready for the mental part of it. You can't allow the atmosphere to get into your head. If you do, you're done. Last year it was at Pittsburgh, and the Penn State fans were something. The place was packed. It was special, but it was overwhelming at the same time."
Andrews is a business-management major and wants to follow in brother Jacob's shoes and own his company when he's done with college and wrestling. "My dad gave me the idea but I'm thinking about owning a roofing business somewhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. When I get that business going, I'm looking forward to giving back to Wyoming someday. I want to do whatever it is that alums do," he grins. "I want to help."
In the meantime, however, he's got unfinished business with the Cowboys, and it'll be fun to watch him grow in the program. He may want to get in the roofing business one day, but for now he has a very high ceiling at Wyoming.
