The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science has long been known for its prowess in the classroom, but now the Columbus-based school is making noise as a program powerful on the wrestling mat.
In only its second year of existence, the Blue Waves’ wrestling program added two more state championship trophies to its display case over the weekend behind dominating performances from Nina Weinstein and Enoch Clardy – a run of early success that head coach Jerry Brauer said is just unbelievable to be a part of.
“That’s what’s turning heads and we’re obviously proud of that,” Brauer said. … It’s amazing the relationships we built with all of them. Some of these kids, they didn’t have confidence in themselves and athletics. Many of them didn’t get involved with sports, let alone combat sports, because wrestling is a combat sport, so to see them grow through the season – they were getting whoopings at the beginning of the year because they didn’t have confidence in what we were teaching them. Then they became more and more confident through the season and in what we were doing and it all came out in the end. Very successful for a small school like this.”
Coming into the MHSAA State Wrestling State Championships, Weinstein, who took home a state crown last year in the school’s first year of wrestling, earned the No. 2 seed in the 145-pound weight class and defeated Alessandra Johnson of D’Iberville, Isabella Jupiter of Ocean Springs and Roarie Patterson of Vancleave to advance to the individual state championship match against No. 1-seeded Alexandria Rosales of Oak Grove. In the finale, Weinstein, a senior, left no doubt on the floor about back-to-back championships by way of takedown just before the second-minute mark of the second period. Not bad for a future surgeon.
“Nina has already been accepted into Johns Hopkins (University). They are all amazing students but Nina is just ridiculous and (will go) to Johns Hopkins. She’s going to do biological engineering. She’s planning on being a surgeon, which is just amazing that she goes out on the mat and does this kind of thing.”
Clardy accomplished his first state championship in similar fashion, a victory by takedown just before the second minute in the second round, but his journey to get there was much more arduous. While in combat on the mat at the North State Tournament, Clardy was also battling through an illness that left him “sluggish.” He eventually came out on the other side with the No. 6 seed in the 157-pound division of the individual state tournament. He linked together triumphs over Preston Kheng of Biloxi, No. 3 seed Se’Von Guy of Oak Grove and No. 2 seed Luke Hale of North Pontotoc before pinning No. 8 seed Lukas Edwards of Lewisburg for the title.
“On his way to the finals he had to face the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the state (Hale) in the semifinals to make it to the finals. He had never beaten that young man before and he pinned him,” Brauer said. “… There was one time this year that (Edwards) beat Enoch and then two prior times Enoch defeated him, both with pins. Then he got to face the same young man in the finals and pinned him again. So the last three times they met, Enoch has pinned him, and he’s a tough guy. His semifinal and his final match, these are top-ranked guys, so he earned it. He went out and got his title; nobody gave it to him.”
‘Brainiacs’
Part of what has made the program so successful is the family-like atmosphere that Brauer has embedded within the fabric of the team alongside assistant coach Chris Coover, who first reached out about helping out with the team on Facebook Messenger. Brauer got to know Coover over a dinner one day and since then Coover has been volunteering his time and energy with help teaching on the mats.
“He’s amazing,” Brauer said. “He’s an amazing guy who is much younger than I am, so he’s much more agile on the mats with the kids. Between the two of us we have become quite the team of coaches.” Even Brauer’s wife, Mary, who is also known as “Mrs. Coach,” gets involved.
“It’s been amazing having family and of course Coach Chris (help with the program) ” Brauer said. “Last year the standing joke (was) and we carried it into this year, all the kids at MSMS are brainiacs. They’re the nerds, they can’t be athletes. I said, ‘Let everyone think that.’ So here we come back from last year with a state champion, this year, two state champions.”
In total, five members of the Blue Wave finished in the top seven at the state tournament. Annabelle Banda finished in sixth-place in the 107-pound division, and Owen Williams (138) and Shaw Prewitt (175) both finished in seventh-place.
“I just couldn’t be more proud of them. I really couldn’t,” Brauer said. … “That’s the amazing thing, we’re going against the Vancleaves and the Picayunes down south, the Tupelos and the Starkvilles up north. These are monstrosity schools and here we are with a student body of maybe 230 and we’re still making a mark, which really is what is making us so proud.”
Despite being in its infancy, the program has already made some noise at the highest level of state competition, and Brauer said it’s likely the Blue Waves will continue to do so.
“At one point this season we had about 21 kids in the practice room, which is nearly 10% of the school population,” he said. “The administration was shocked. ‘Coach, what are you doing in here?’ I said, ‘We are opening the door. Whoever wants to come in and learn, they can come in and learn and just have the time of their lives.’”
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