Wrestler reaches elite level by being a gym rat at Braden River High

Matthew Ireland has trouble sitting still.

It’s not always the most useful trait to exhibit for a high school student, where long stretches of the day require doing just that — sitting still in a classroom or auditorium for hours at a time — but he can’t help it. That’s just the way he’s wired. 

For Ireland, a senior at Braden River High, it’s turned out to be a good thing. While the restlessness and nervous energy that seems to course through him doesn’t always help in the classroom, it pays dividends in the place he cares about the most — the wrestling mat. 

In wrestling, sitting still can be a death sentence. Wrestlers are always moving, looking for the smallest of openings to break through against their opponent. A match can be won or lost in the blink of an eye — one wrong move, one momentary lapse in attention can result in a takedown, escape, pin or even an injury. 

At 5-foot-6, 120 pounds, Ireland is somehow both slight and imposing at the same time. At practice he moves around Braden River’s wrestling room, a tight space filled with a couple dozen wrestlers from the boys and girls programs. He has confidence, cracking jokes with teammates during warmups. 

When it’s time to hit the mat, however, Ireland’s all business. He grapples with Jacob Fuentes, a 132-pound junior, with the two wresters showing one another no mercy as they shoot for takedowns and pins.

The competition is intense and Ireland wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, he wouldn’t mind if things were a little more heated. 

Photo by Dylan Campbell

While Fuentes is a great partner, Ireland said, technically proficient and plenty challenging, he misses the battles he had with former senior Grady Murphy. 

“It was my favorite thing, because we were both so driven,” said Ireland. “At the end of practice, both of us would have bloody noses from going as hard as we could.”

Driven is probably the best way to describe Ireland, who raised his record to 41-3 with a championship Jan. 18 in the Rickey Gullett Invitational at Bayshore High. He has established himself as Braden River’s top wrestler and one of the top 120-pounders in Class 2A.

“Wrestling has helped with improving my overall life,” Ireland said. “I have more self-control, because of everything that I’m doing for wrestling. It has made me stronger mentally as well. If I can wrestle, then I can do most of the things that I face in life.”

He has a mission, to win a title in the 120-pound class at the state tournament on March 6-8 in Kissimmee, and the determination to make his dream a reality.

It wasn’t always that way. 

When Ireland, who lives in Braden River's district but attended Foundations Christian Montessori Academy until his junior year, stepped into Head Coach Cezar Sharbono’s wrestling room partway through his freshman year, he was a scant 98 pounds, with absolutely no wrestling experience.

Photo by Dylan Campbell 

He trained in gymnastics prior to high school, but at the behest of his uncle, a former wrestler, he decided to give wrestling a shot. 

Although Ireland said that he loved wrestling right away because the aggressiveness and intensity gave him a place where he would channel his energy, it was not an easy start. 

At 98 pounds, Ireland should’ve been wrestling at Florida High School Athletic Association’s lowest weight class, 106 pounds. That spot was filled, however, so he was bumped up to 113 pounds.

Ireland rose to the challenge. 

“My opponents did have an advantage over me in size and skill," he said. "There was nothing I could do about it, so I just pushed through and sucked it up.”

For Sharbono, cases like Ireland’s are a common occurrence. Sharbono noted that Florida, as a whole, does not have the same youth wrestling culture as states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, where kids start wrestling in elementary school. 

Braden River High in particular, he said, doesn’t have the pipeline of youth wrestling talent flowing through it like that of perennial powerhouses Tampa Jesuit and Lakeland’s Lake Gibson High. 

Many of the wrestlers who come through his doors, like Ireland, are new to the sport. Routinely, his wrestlers will face opponents who have wrestled for twice as long. There is a fix to that, Sharbono said, one that is simple yet effective. 

Photo by Dylan Campbell

“Matty used to be just a straight grinder, with very minimal technique,” said Sharbono. “Now the technique is catching up, because he’s put in the time. Our goal for the kids who want to be the best is to get in 100 matches from the time our season ends in March to the start of the next school year in August. We had four do it this year, Matty being one of them.”

During the season, Sharbono’s wrestlers will have between 50-70 matches. It’s the only way, Sharbono said, that they can get caught up to their opponents who have been wrestling for their entire lives. 

So far this season the work has paid off. Sharbono points to Ireland’s wins over Rocco Ruiz of Columbus High, the 2024 1A state runner up at 106 pounds and South-Dade High's Kaleb Williams, who took third in 2024 in the 3A 120-pound weight class. 

Sharbono said that not only has Ireland’s technique improved, but his motor and determination are what allow him to defeat more experienced opponents. 

Ireland plans to wrestle in college and has been in communication with coaches from schools such as Northern Iowa Area Community College, the 11th ranked junior college for wrestling by the NJCAA, and the home of Braden River’s 2023 state champion, Jessey Colas. He wants to pursue the sport in different avenues after college as well, perhaps delving into mixed martial arts and more hand-to-hand combat. 

“When I’m not there on the mat, it just feels like something’s missing,” said Ireland.