University of Minnesota Athletics
Graduating Gophers: Brad Dolezal
5/12/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
The ability to jump into the lineup of a Division I wrestling team at a moment's notice and compete against some of the best in the country may be underappreciated, but it doesn't make it any less valuable. During the back-half of his Gopher career, Brad Dolezal filled this role in the middle weights for the Gophers, stepping in on late notice at both 157 and 165 pounds.
It requires the perfect attitude for someone as accomplished in his junior wrestling career as Dolezal, who won a cadet national title and Pan Am Games gold in Greco in addition to three Wisconsin state titles in folkstyle, to fill that integral need for a college program.
"It is a different mindset," said Dolezal. "You just have to be ready. You never know when they are going to need you."
While it's easy to say that it requires a different mindset, actually getting to that place mentally is a bigger challenge. Dolezal wrestled as a full-time starter for part of his redshirt freshman year before fitting into his ready-at-a-moment's-notice role. It was during the second half of that redshirt freshman season, when he began rotating in and out of the lineup, that he feels helped prepare him to wrestle at any time. He also credits older Gophers for showing him how to succeed in that role.
Joe Nord and Ben Berhow were two of those role models. Dolezal recalls a story of how Berhow grabbed a bit of glory and a win for Minnesota over Wisconsin by stepping in for an injured Tony Nelson and winning his heavyweight match in the closing seconds to seal the dual victory for the Gophers.
"Ben and Joe are two guys who were the most relatable for me," said Dolezal, but "there are a lot of guys who just stepped in for one match and they were always ready. Guys like Seth [Lange] always talked about being ready for whenever they had their shot."
Though Dolezal's Gopher career has come to an end and someone else will need to step into his shoes next season, his wrestling career isn't necessarily over. Going back to his days wrestling Greco before coming to the U of M, Dolezal may give that style another shot.
"Right now, I'm definitely relaxing, taking some time off and thinking about what I want to do," said Dolezal. "If I want to wrestle Greco, it's still an option. ... I'll go to a few practices. I'll go from there and see how I feel."
Like the role Dolezal filled for the Gophers, Greco can be the underappreciated, but it's the right fit for Dolezal.
"I've always liked it. A lot of it is hand-fighting and pummeling. It's all chest-to-chest, going forward type stuff," said Dolezal. "Some guys like their own space and don't like tying up, but that's my style."
Regardless of how long his wrestling career continues after he graduates with a degree in Nutrition this May, Dolezal has interest in staying close to athletics by using his degree to help young athletes.
Like so many people, he wasn't 100 percent sure what he wanted to do when he first arrived on his college's campus. He knew he'd be interested in nutrition or construction, the latter because his dad made a career as a project manager. Dolezal found himself attracted to how nutrition affects how the body works and particularly how that applied to him and his athletic performance and sport. Now with the academic background to support that intellectual curiosity, he'd like to put that knowledge to work every day.
"I like the aspect of helping athletes [and] I love coaching," said Dolezal. "I could see myself as a coach, too, [but] helping athletes with the nutrition aspect and seeing them better their skills with that help interests me."
For someone with such an affinity for nutrition and the value it has in the lives of athletes, Dolezal is ready for a break from constantly monitoring calories and sugars and saturated fats in his food.
"Making weight started to kind of wear on me a little bit," he said. "I was just looking toward the end and looking forward to not having to make weight anymore."
When that day came where he knew stepping on a scale wasn't in his short-term future and he wouldn't be getting another last-minute call into the lineup, he was ready to indulge a bit.
"Ice cream and soda," he said, with a smile.
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