Meet Gloucester Township Patch's Athlete of the Winter Season

Although already respected as one of the area’s top wrestlers,  junior Brandon Keller took his reputation to a new level when he won his third Region 8 title and made it all the way to the state finals. The result will be surreal expectations in his senior season that will be extremely hard to match or surpass.

Yet, Keller said the expectations from the wrestling community are nothing compared to what he expects from himself.

“I’m going to have pressure from outside people, but I have pressure from myself, too,” he said. “The outside stuff won’t bother me because it’s nothing more than the pressure I put on myself. It’s not like outside people will tell me something I don’t believe myself.”

Keller—Gloucester Township Patch's Athlete of the Season—finished his junior year with 106 victories, a total that very few wrestlers ever obtain after four years, let alone three. He has his sights fixed on reaching 150 for his career, which might take an undefeated season to achieve.

Most of all, he wants the state title, a prize he to grabbing last weekend. Keller fell 3-1 to South Plainfield’s Scott DelVecchio, on a takedown in the final 25 seconds in the 132-pound final.

“I’ve been working for (a state title) since I was 6 and it has always been my dream, you could say,” said Keller. “I knew I could get there. I don’t know how many other people thought I could, but I took it one match at a time. It was great getting there, but when you get so close it sucks falling short.”

Keller has replayed the match in his mind dozens of times and doesn’t plan on getting it out of his mind for quite some time. He plans to use it as fuel during his senior season as he looks to climb to the top of the wrestling mountain.

“I don’t think I’m going to get rid of that; it’s always right in back of head,” said Keller said of the loss. “It is still bothering me and it won’t stop until next year in the first week of March when I have a chance to reach that mark again. If I win the state title next year, then it won’t bother me that I took second my junior year.”

One thing working against Keller (35-6) during the state tournament was his injured, and possibly broken, nose. Keller suffered the injury during the Region 8 Tournament and said he was swallowing blood during his championship match. He wrestled with a mask during one match at states, but elected to wrestle without it the remainder of the way. The result was several stoppages during his run, which gave a start-and-stop feeling to a couple of his bouts. It was not the ideal scenario for Keller or his opponents.

“If you have a lot of momentum and then have to stop the match it just kills the momentum you had,” said Keller, who was waiting on the results of X-rays. “You have to breathe through your mouth and it hurts, but it’s more about the momentum than anything else.”

Despite the disappointing final match of his remarkable season, momentum is something he will have plenty of when he returns to the mat next season. He plans on hitting the weight room hard over the next several months with the intention of bumping up to 138 or 145 as a senior.

Whatever weight he lands at, all eyes will be on Keller as he attempts to further cement his legacy as one of the greatest wrestlers to ever put on a Chargers uniform.

“I’ve worked really hard to get here and I am going to keep working till I reach my goals,” Keller said. “I know what I am capable of.”