When Brady Colbert, now a sophomore heavyweight wrestler for Army West Point, announced at age 12 that he wanted to wrestle, it was like music to the ears of his parents Chris, a former high school wrestler, and Cinnamon, a former Junior Olympic martial artist.

But then again, music was common to the Colbert family of Manassas, Va., where Chris and Cinnamon also introduced piano, as well as many other sports, to all four of their sons.

“I’ll come home after a long day’s work and hear music from our upstairs piano and our downstairs piano,” said Chris, a roofing contractor. “It makes my day.”

“We don’t push anything here,” Cinnamon said. “Chris and I were multiple-sport athletes growing up and wanted them to try anything. (Brady) was a late-bloomer with wrestling, and you let the kids gravitate to what they want to do and they find their passion.”

The only “problem” was that Brady had more of a passion for piano than wrestling, compared to his brothers, Cash, Gunner and Nixon, who all started wrestling at a much younger age than Brady.

“I loved playing piano,” Brady said. “When my brothers went to wrestling practice with my dad, I would play piano and cook at home with my mom and I would swim in the winter. My parents kept nudging me to wrestle, but they never forced me to wrestle and were supportive of everything that I would do.”

But with an additional promise that his parents would buy him new shoes, Brady finally gave wrestling a chance … and “I loved it immediately,” said Brady.

“I think he loves the intensity of the sport,” said Chris, who wrestled 20 years ago at 189 pounds for Bishop Ireton in Alexandria, where he is a member of that school’s Hall of Fame. “Brady was not into it, but now he embraces that part of it.”

This also came about the time that Chris and Cinnamon, both natives of Virginia, started their own “Mat Sharks” wrestling club in Manassas.

“When we were driving the boys to practice two hours one way, I told my husband to think about it and nine years ago we started the club. It’s been great,” said Cinnamon, who grew up before girls wrestling became popular.

“I always had that spunky side to me and I would have wrestled when I could have,” she said.  

“We want all kids to give wrestling a shot,” Chris said. “Everyone can benefit from the sport.”

Wrestling was indeed a way of life for the Colbert family and all four boys have flourished in the sport. That includes Cash, who recently broke the state’s all-time victory (237) record after recently winning his fourth championship (at 215 pounds) for St. Paul VI Catholic at the VISAA state tournament, where Nixon, a sophomore, claimed his first championship at 175 pounds on Feb. 14. And one day later, they were helping their fifth-grade brother, Nixon, and other kids at Mat Sharks wrestling practice.

That was one week after Brady defeated Lehigh’s #5-ranked Nathan Taylor in a Feb. 7 dual meet, which should earn the Cadet the top seed in this year’s EIWA Championships — and a second straight trip to the NCAA Championships in Cleveland.

“Everything is clicking, and I feel good about going into the postseason,” said Brady, who stood 17-3 after the Taylor win and was rated #13 in the NCAA’s February rankings. He is now looking to become Army’s first champ since 1963 and the academy’s first-ever heavyweight All-American after he went 1-2 in the 2025 NCAAs.

“I put in a lot of work,” Brady said. “I’m picking my coaches’ brains and asking the right questions and trying to be super coachable. I’m constantly a student of the sport, learning something every day.”

Brady, who also credits Tom Kibler of Powerhouse Wrestling Academy in Fredericksburg, Va., for his success, certainly has learned a lot about wrestling and life since he earned one state title and two National Prep All-American honors for Wyoming Seminary and St. Paul VI Catholic, which earned him an offer to wrestle at West Point.

Brady knew little about the historic United States Military Academy near the Hudson River in New York. And Cinnamon, at first, was not a big fan when her two oldest sons were asked to go on a recruiting visit three years ago.

“My wife said there was no way my kid is going to be in the Army or go to West Point,” recalled Chris. “But when they were halfway through the visit, my wife called me and said, ‘This checks off all the boxes for both of them and they want to be part of it.”

Cash will eventually join Brady at West Point, where he will spend next fall attending the academy’s prep school and hopes to have a better experience than his older brother, who missed the entire wrestling season in 2023-24 because of a serious kidney issue, where one of his ureters to his bladder was completely blocked.

“I had this kidney stent to relieve pressure from my kidney and I was bedridden for a couple months,” Brady said. “I could barely walk and would be exhausted.”

“That was definitely scary,” recalled Cinnamon. “As soon as I heard about it, I drove north. They did not have a urologist at West Point, so they transferred him out in an ambulance to a hospital in New York.”

Brady eventually had three surgeries between September of 2023 and February of 2024 to repair the issue. But there was a fear that his days at West Point might be short.

“It put my time at the academy at stake,” Brady said. “Going into prep school, you still have to get accepted into West Point and medically I was not cleared for the longest time. I was afraid I would not be able to go to West Point.”

“It’s tough getting through any kind of an injury, but when you have the pressure of being in the academy and teachers telling him he’s missed too much school and might have to redo the year, he had a lot of mental adversity on top of the physical adversity,” Cinnamon said.

But six months after his last surgery, Brady “worked his butt off” and was starting and eventually wrestled over 40 matches while dealing with academy demands as a Plebe.

“You have a long day where you get yelled at for certain things and are taking hard classes,” he said. “They want to see if you are West Point material. It’s a lot to deal with, especially being on an NCAA Division I roster when you are also trying to find your spot on the team. Wrestling was my escape. I could go to the wrestling room, take a deep breath and relax.”

That was also where he became even closer friends to his teammates. 

“We have over 50 guys on our roster and I would take a bullet for any of them,” said Brady, who is unsure what area of the military he will specialize in — while also catching the attention of his new year coach Troy Nickerson after his first varsity season.

“When I first got here and started working with the team, I could see right away he had the talent and that ‘It’ factor,” Nickerson said. “He is all in and driven, and I think he’s continued to progress as the season has gone along. It’s nice to see him get a big win to help him validate himself that he can wrestle with anyone in the country.

“One of the things that drives him to be successful is that he has an urgency to win. He wants to beat these guys now. He’s proving that he’s right on track.”

At 6-foot-3 and nearly 250 pounds, Brady takes pride in being one of today’s “athletic” heavyweights. He was introduced to the idea when he spent his junior year of high school at Wyoming Seminary, where current Army associate head coach Scott Green was coaching before recruiting Brady to attend West Point.

“I really liked (Penn State’s 2019 NCAA champ) Anthony Cassar,” Brady said. “I thought that it was cool that he bumped up to heavyweight and he won a national championship.

“I remember growing up when wrestling heavyweight was about who could be the biggest and it turned into more of a pushing match. Now with this new era of heavyweights, they are more athletic and a little bit smaller, fun to watch and scoring a lot. I wanted to be part of that.”

At the same time, Brady and his brothers still love to play the piano back at their family home in Virginia.

“I just bought a Baby Grand for them this Christmas because the best thing is hearing them all play when they are at home,” Cinnamon said. “It’s cool to see them go out on the wrestling mat, ripping off heads, then coming home and wanting to play classical Beethoven. It’s a nice mix for me.”

She also pointed out that her favorite tune played by Brady is “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, perhaps a perfect theme for Brady and her sons, who certainly have bright futures … on and off the mat.