Marshwood’s Brad Beaulieu gets his hand raised after winning the 138-pound final at the 2017 New England Wrestling Championships in Providence. JASON GENDRON PHOTOGRAPHY
It doesn’t look like the Huskies will be slowing down anytime soon as former four-time state champion and Maine’s all-time wins leader Brad Beaulieu is transferring from Division I Old Dominion to USM.
Beaulieu, who also won a New England championship for Marshwood High School, is excited to join the USM family and train in a wrestling room that has a ton of local talent.
“There’s a bunch of Maine guys and I think it’s awesome. It’s the only varsity wrestling the state offers, and I think USM is a great spot for the top level Maine guys to come to and we can represent our home state, represent ourselves and our high schools. I think it’s a great opportunity,” said Beaulieu, who finished his high school career with an incredible 246-15 record.
When Beaulieu was going through the recruiting process out of high school, Southern Maine wasn’t on the radar as he was focused on giving Division I wrestling a try.
“I actually did talk to (USM assistant) coach (Jon) Deupree once at the Noble Invitational. I believe it was my junior year he came up to me and asked me about my college plans. At the time I was looking to go Division I and I told him that,” said Beaulieu. “He gave me his business card and told me if I never needed anything to let him know and it’s a funny story now that things have happened. A couple years have gone by and now I’m actually going to be going to USM. I never would have thought (I would be going to USM), but I’m excited about it.”
The former Marshwood standout thought Old Dominion was the perfect spot for him to continue his academic and wrestling career.
“There were a lot of factors into choosing (Old Dominion) … the location, the team and the whole scholarship situation was probably the best fit for me — or I thought at least at that time,” said Beaulieu.
Beaulieu spent his freshman year at ODU practicing with the team and competing in some open tournaments as he used up his redshirt. As the season went along, the 2017 New England champ started to run into some problems.
“I wrestled in a couple tournaments here and eventually I realized there were a couple issues going on as far as my weight and weight class and a couple other issues I was dealing with. Ultimately, I felt like I wasn’t in the best situation for myself and I talked to my parents about it,” Beaulieu recalled. “I talked to my mom mostly about it and she told me to do what I thought was best for myself and I decided to leave the team in the second half of the year … I was grateful for the opportunity to come here and everything, but sometimes things just don’t work out.”
After he left the ODU team, Beaulieu took some time off and actually thought about giving up the sport.
“For a while after the decision (to leave the team) I really wasn’t planning on wrestling. To be honest, I was pretty down about the whole situation, you know I came here looking to achieve my goal of being a national champ and unfortunately it just wasn’t a good fit here,” said Beaulieu. “I took a couple weeks off from wrestling completely and just didn’t think about it. I didn’t even know if I was going to wrestle again. I didn’t even want to and I figured this was my shot, I gave it what I had and it didn’t work out so I wasn’t planning on wrestling again.”
A trip back to Maine would quickly change his mind.
“I don’t think it was really until I came home for spring break … I went in my room and saw all my trophies and state brackets from over the years. It kind of brought that extra motivation that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I gave up now and didn’t give USM a chance,” said Beaulieu, who still has four years of eligibility remaining.
The success of USM wrestlers like Dan Del Gallo, who won a national title in 2017, and 2018 national qualifiers Peter Del Gallo and Austin Shorey certainly made Beaulieu give the local school another look.
“I was watching them all season. Me and Justin (Stacy) are good friends and obviously I was going to watch how he did over the season. I’ve known Peter and Austin, we wrestled growing up, so we know each other,” said Beaulieu, who has been impressed with what head coach Mike Morin has done at USM. “The success that they had (individually) and as a team taking fifth in the conference and only a couple points behind third and fourth, I think it’s exciting and definitely something I’m ready to jump into and help them try to be a top ten team in the country.”
Beaulieu, who wrestled at 133 this past season at ODU, will look to find a spot in the lineup next season at USM.
“I would like to go 141, but 133 may not be out of the question but that’s something we would have to talk about since Peter’s there (at 125), I’m here now and Austin (is at 141),” said Beaulieu. “We are all kind of in this group of weight classes. It’s something we’ll have to figure out. I think 141 would be ideal, but I’m not counting out 133 either.”
Beaulieu believes that no matter what weight he goes at USM, he will have what it takes to contend with the best in Division III wrestling.
“I definitely want to be able to get in there and compete right away,” said Beaulieu. “I was following the guys down at nationals this year and seeing some of the guys in the 133-pound bracket and 141, there were a lot of guys I’ve wrestled in high school and at national competitions. People that I know and I think I’m very well able to contend to be an All-American and, if I put my best self out there, I think there’s no reason why I can’t be a national champion.”
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.
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