Brigance leaves mark on THS wrestling

By CRAIG HALL
Talihina is used to having success in football and basketball.

After all, the Tigers were undefeated until falling in the quarterfinals in football this year. Talihina’s boys are ranked third in Class 2A in basketball after making the state finals last year.

Now, Talihina is having success in wrestling. Wrestling? Yes, in wrestling, thanks to senior James Cody Brigance.

After finishing second in the state as a sophomore at Poteau, he transferred to Talihina where there was no wrestling program.

	Photos by Shelly Trowbridge Talihina's James Cody Brigance looks for an opening in the finals against Kyle Cowan of Cascia Hall.
Brigance, center, poses with Dewayne Hornbuckle, left, and Jon Bradberry after winning his medal.

But Brigance wanted to continue wrestling and with help and support from the administration and the school, he got the chance.

And Brigance made the most of it. After not placing as a junior, he made it to the finals this year before losing to Kyle Cowan of Cascia Hall, who won his fourth state championship with a 3-1 win over Brigance.

“They were real supportive of it,” he said of the Talihina administrators. “Nobody had ever seen it before. They were all supportive. I said I wanted to do it and they were all nice about it.”

In his first year at Talihina, it was just Brigance, his coaches and one other. This year, several others decided to give it a try, although none of the other Tigers made it to the state tournament.

“It was difficult to find people to wrestle with,” said Brigance. “Last year it was just me, my coaches and one other guy.”

Brigance got a lot of help from his coaches in almost winning a state championship. One coach, Jon Bradberryury, is a coach at Talihina but did not have any experience with wrestling. Fortunately, Dewayne Hornbuckle, the son of a long-time Poteau wrestling coach, Jack Hornbuckle, drove to Talihina and back every day to help Brigance.

“Dewayne knows it all, his whole life,” Brigance said. “I’m really thankful for him. I really trust him.”

Brigance had a 40-3 record going into the tournament this year. Because there weren’t enough wrestlers to field a team, most of his matches came in tournaments although he and a few others wrestled a few other duals, although they were considered scrimmages.

He hopes the wrestling program at Talihina continues, even after Brigance goes to Oklahoma City University to wrestle next year.

“We have started something good,” he said. “I hope others will want to do it.”

Brigance finished third in the regional tournament, falling to Perry’s Anthony Lopez in triple overtime in the semifinals. That gave him the third seed from his region for the state tournament.

After winning his first match, Brigance got some revenge on Lopez in the semifinals to advance to the finals against Cowan, who had only lost one match in four years and that was because of a disqualification.

Brigance was not afraid to face Cowan, since they had wrestled several times before.

“I thought I might have a style advantage,” Brigance said. “I had a chance because of the different styles.”

He said some of the previous matches were close. The final was a 3-1 decision by Cowan, but Brigance came close to grabbing the lead while trailing 1-0. Cowan was on top, but Brigance almost got a reverse before the Cascia Hall wrestler countered.

Brigance was the defensive player of the year on the Journal’s all-county football team and said it was a fairly easy choice on what to do in college.

“I thought about going on and playing football,” he said. “But as the wrestling season progressed, I wanted to continue to do it. I had played football since third grade.”

Now he hopes to make his mark on the OCU wrestling program.

“They have a real good program,” Brigance said. “They really stress academics and it is a good school. If you can’t make your grades, you can’t cut it. They have a couple of guys who qualified for the national tournament and I hope to have the chance to wrestle for a national championship.”