SNOQUALMIE — It’s hard to imagine Mount Si High
School’s Brad Davis and his brothers, Curt and Kyle Davis, not being
wrestlers. The three boys come from a long line of wrestlers,
including their father, Dan, who took third place in the 178-pound
weight class at the league tournament in 1977 for Othello High
School. Their older brothers, Kent, 21, and Adam, 19, also wrestled
for Mount Si. Even the dog, Cindy, and the cat, Bobcat, have
had their fair share of wrestling with the Davis brothers.
The Davis family, which includes the boys’ mother,
Rakae, and their only daughter, Christy, moved to Snoqualmie
from Othello when Brad was 3 years old. He became interested in
wrestling at the age of 8 when his father first took him to a Mount
Si wrestling meet.
“Their mom said, `Oh, there’s no blood at a wrestling
match,'” Dan said. But then somebody broke a nose.
“And then Brad comes home and says, `Mom, you lied to
us,'” Dan said.
Twelve years and many matches later, Brad is still
hooked on wrestling. His father has only missed one of Brad’s meets,
and only because it was older brother Kent’s wedding day.
“The boys on the team call me coach,” Dan said. ” I am their
No. 1 fan.” And Dad doesn’t just watch the three Davis brothers
wrestle. He likes to join in on the fun.
“I don’t wrestle as much as I used to; it used to be a lot of
three-on-one. Now you’ve got to pick your time to wrestle them,”
he said.
“Yeah,” Kyle said. “Like when we’re sick.” Kyle wrestles in
the 275-pound weight class, and his twin brother, Curt, wrestles at
189 for Mount Si’s junior-varsity team.
The Davis family likes to wrestle downstairs in a
recreation room that Rakae refers to as
the “dungeon.”
Posters of professional wrestlers, like the Rock, and the
Davis brothers’ favorite, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, hang on the
walls that surround the wrestling “pit,” where a lone chair sits on an
area rug barely thick enough to break a fierce body slam.
“There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t end
up in a wrestling match,” Dan said.
“It doesn’t take long to move a chair out of the way,” Brad
said. “We’re on our third pair of couches.”
Often, the matches are lopsided.
“He beats up on us,” Curt said of Brad, with the elder
brother adding, “It’s like me against them two,” while gesturing to Curt
and Kyle. But the victory count isn’t equal between the brothers.
“When Kyle’s really mad, he takes it out on Curt. Curt is
the one that always loses,” Brad said. “I think he may have won
once, but that’s because I helped him out.”
Rakae said her oldest son, Kent, is responsible for
the younger brothers’ interest in wrestling, explaining “He’s the
one who kind of started it all,” Rakae said.
“I was like Kent’s little shadow. He referred to me as
his `good luck charm.'” Brad said.
Kent’s good luck came to a halt after suffering a
career-ending knee dislocation as a junior in high school when another
wrestler fell on his knee during a match.
“My son’s knee went sideways, and a main artery
pinched off … It ruined his career,” Dan said.
Brad said since then, his mother gets nervous
whenever someone steps on the mat.
“I’m the maintainer,” she said. “There is life after wrestling.”
“Not much,” her husband said, smiling.
Despite his mother’s concern for their safety, Curt said he
tries to listen to his father or his coaches during meets to keep
him from getting distracted.
“I’ve just grown to hear my dad’s voice,” Curt said.
Brad relies more on internal motivation to keep him
focused on his opponent.
“I tell myself small things, like, `keep my head up,
elbows in, and keep myself cool,’ so I can wrestle smart,” he said. And
it’s worked well, making him the current 3A KingCo league
champion and the Sea-King district champ in the 189-pound weight class.
“My dad would always tell me to get more excited, [to
get] mad,” Brad said.
“I don’t know if mad’s the word, but you have to get
intense,” Dan said.
The three boys have had to sacrifice a lot of their time to
be good wrestlers.
“Fridays and Saturdays are completely shot,” Brad
said. “You’ve got to train, and you need your sleep.”
Even Sundays are reserved, Dan added, for church.
Brad’s plans for the future include going to college, but he
is not sure where. It may also depend on how well he does at
the state wrestling meet Feb. 17 in Tacoma. Dan said his son
needs to place in the top three at state to garner the attention of colleges.
But any experience at state will be better than last year,
when Brad contracted food poisoning the Sunday before the
district meet and did not place at state. He was unable to keep any
food down until the day of the state tournament, and by then he
was too weak to wrestle well from the sudden weight loss.
“I lost 10 pounds,” Brad said. “And I didn’t get better until
Friday.”
So far, Brad has only lost one match this season to
Grant Guidinger of Mercer Island, whom he later avenged in
the league meet to become the reigning 189-pound league
champion. The two went on to wrestle again in the district meet last
Saturday, Feb. 10, where Brad bested him again to become champion in
the 189-pound class.
He has also sworn off food from the restaurant where he
believes he contracted the food poisoning that left him 10
pounds lighter last year, and if all goes well, he plans to redeem
himself at state.
“If I get [in the] top six, I will be happy,” Brad said.
Dan was a bit more direct about his son’s chances.
“People better watch out for Brad Davis,” he said.
