After every match, Brandon Browne picks up a program.
The pamphlets are reminders that his career is nearing its end.
Nebraska’s home dual against Iowa State will be the last for Browne and senior teammates Vince Jones and Robert Sanders.
The regular-season finale will be the last time they run out of the locker room and circle the mat with their teammates, the last time they’re able to support each other on the mat.
“I think about (the end) every day, every practice,” Sanders said. “It gives me a sense of urgency knowing that it’s almost over, and I don’t want to have any regrets, knowing I could have worked harder, I could have put in a little extra effort.”
While the thought of their wrestling careers coming to an end doesn’t have the seniors clinging to the practice room mat, each agreed there would be something different about Sunday.
Browne said he would probably soak in the nostalgia of the moment, while Sanders said he would try to feed off the ambiance of the crowd. Jones said he thinks about his career ending every night before he goes to sleep.
However sentimental the moment could get, each wrestler said they plan on using it to focus on the task at hand.
“I’m just going to go out there and do everything that I normally do,” Browne said. “I don’t want to go out there and do too much and wrestle like an idiot.
“It’s just going out there and doing what I always do and just being me. If I just do that, I know I’ll be successful.”
Both Browne and Sanders joined the team in 2005, redshirting their first year and scrapping for starts in their second.
Sanders’s bout for a starting position didn’t solidify until this December, when he dropped his weight under 149 pounds and took the starting role for that weight class.
After a collegiate career full of uncertainty and splitting time, the senior from Cortez, Colo., didn’t know what legacy he would leave.
“(The opportunity) just opened up through coming in every day and putting extra hours into workouts,” Sanders said. “It just slowly came about. Now I’ve just realized how big of an impact I’ve made and different people have made on me.”
Browne, on the other hand, did not have comparable struggles capturing his starting role. Instead the Plattsmouth native, after sitting out the 2007 campaign because of academic probation, started for a Husker squad in 2008 that boasted just two other 174-pounders, both redshirt freshmen.
The motivation from sitting out a season led Browne to a 35-4 record and a fourth-place finish at the 2008 NCAA Championships.
“You can’t put into words what five years has done for me,” Browne said. “All the hard work, the good times, the bad times – there’s a million different stories.”
Entangled in the same academic situation as Browne, Jones was forced to sit out in 2007 after earning a wild-card birth to the NCAA Championships the year before.
He bounced back in 2008, gaining another wild-card bid to nationals and nearly earning All-American honors. The senior from Sicklerville, N.J., said he feels like the younger guys can come to him for support, especially when it doesn’t have anything to do with wrestling.
“I tell them to keep their head up no matter what,” Jones said. “I just want everybody to know that I was a great kid on and off the mat, because that’s all that matters.”
NU Coach Mark Manning said he’s seen growth from all the seniors on the team.
“They’ve all really matured as people and they’ve really matured as competitors,” Manning said. “But more than that, it’s about getting them prepared for life. I feel really great about those guys being successful in life.”
This next time Browne finishes his match and looks at the pamphlet displaying the team’s schedule, it won’t just be his last dual.
It’ll be his last program.
davehoufek@dailynebraskan.com
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