If You Pin Him Down, He’ll Pick Football : Wrestling: Savanna’s Belanger, who qualified for State last year, stays with the sport even though his first love is on gridiron.

Brad Belanger of Savanna High School was in third grade when he first asked his father if he could play Pop Warner football.

“Let’s wait until you’re older,” said his father, who instead steered his son into age-group freestyle wrestling.

Belanger was in sixth grade the next time he asked his father about football. This time, his dad relented, but with a catch. Brad had to continue wrestling if he wanted to play football.

Since then, football and wrestling have been entwined in Belanger’s sporting life. Most of the time, the two sports have had a harmonious relationship. Neither interfered with the other, as Belanger avoided serious injury in each sport.

The past two seasons, Belanger was Savanna’s clever quarterback, passing for about 3,000 yards. Last March, he qualified for the CIF State wrestling tournament in the 140-pound weight class.

But this past November, one solid hit on the football field ended his streak of luck.

Belanger suffered torn back muscles while playing against either Magnolia or Western, he can’t remember which game it was. It was one of those freak accidents that could infuriate a wrestling coach if he chose to let it.

“I was running with the ball when somebody grabbed me and swung me around,” Belanger said. “And I got hit in the lower back. I took a helmet there really hard.”

The injury wasn’t severe enough to sideline Belanger, who played the remainder of the football season in pain. But when it came time to join the Rebels’ wrestling team, it was too much to take. All that stretching and contortion on the mat put him in agony.

His rest and rehabilitation have lasted almost a month, but now Belanger is back to full strength and ready to wrestle. He said the time off could be beneficial.

“If anything, it’s made me more hungry to get out there and wrestle,” said Belanger, a 5-foot-9 1/2 senior.

Tom Caspari, Savanna’s wrestling coach, agreed the layoff could do some good.

“I don’t think it’s going to affect him in the end, honestly,” Caspari said. “He’s got a positive attitude about it, and that’s the most important thing.”

Some coaches would cringe at the thought of their best wrestler playing quarterback. But not Caspari, who believes football has helped Belanger become a better wrestler.

“I’ve never been one to subscribe to that type of paranoia,” Caspari said. “If he does (get hurt), he does. He’s become better because of what he’s done. He’s really poised, really competitive from playing quarterback. The two sports have complemented each other.”

That’s not to say playing football ever did much to physically prepare Belanger to wrestle. Each December, it’s been the same: Belanger must improve his fitness dramatically and cut his weight 15 to 20 pounds.

On the football field, Belanger said he needed to be fast for 10 seconds, tops, then he had 30 seconds or so to catch a breather. No such luck on the wrestling mat, where the action is virtually nonstop for each six-minute match.

Usually, it took one to two weeks before Belanger’s body became acclimated to the intensity of wrestling.

That transition was nothing compared to the moves he made during his first two years in high school.

Toughest was the change from freestyle to collegiate wrestling, which Belanger described as the difference between NFL and Canadian Football League rules.

After his freshman season, Belanger transferred from Canyon to Savanna--another big change.

At Savanna, he became a quick learner with help from Caspari and Tony Okada, a two-time State champion at 135 pounds.

Belanger had always tried to wrestle against better wrestlers, and Okada was a perfect opponent.

“That was the only thing I considered when I wrestled (Okada),” Belanger said. “I knew it was going to make me better.”

Last season, Belanger won the Southern Section 3-A championship and advanced to the State meet, where he won two matches and lost two but did not place.

Belanger would like to continue his athletic career in college, and his sport of choice hasn’t changed since the third grade.

“To be honest, I really want to play football,” he said. “If the colleges I want to attend don’t want me, then I’ll go to wrestle.”