I have written and published a lot of these on current and sometimes former Hawkeyes. I don’t know why I haven’t posted any of them on here in a while… for current guys, I’ve published articles for Joel Jesuroga, Cobe Siebrecht, Nelson Brands, Joe Kelly, Kolby Franklin, Mickey Griffith, Drew Bennett, Drake Ayala, Cullan Schriever, Aiden Riggins, Easton Fleshman, Caleb Rathjen, etc… have posted a ton of them… if I get time, maybe I can post them on here… they are all located on the pin doctors Facebook page if you want to read them now… Facebook.com/thepindoctors
This one is on Bradley Hill.. let me know if any others you’d like me to dig up…
Bradley Hill; Bettendorf HS/Iowa Hawkeyes/Sebolt Wrestling Academy
Brad Hill is a product of Bettendorf HS wrestling as well as Sebolt Wrestling Academy. Since the 2022 Iowa HS State Wrestling Tournament concluded, Brad has been a guy that I have been so close to writing one of these articles on and have wanted to, since he is a future teammate of my little brother Brennan’s at Iowa. Also, his father, Rob Hill runs a wrestling media outlet/platform called QCA Wrestle, which covers the wrestling scene in the Quad Cities area, and he has always been super cool to me. If it is one group of people in life that seems to have a collective disgust for me, it’s other wrestling media people, for whatever reason. Rob is one of the very few other wrestling media people who has always been very nice to that spazzy ‘ol Pin Doctor. When I talk to most other wrestling media, they generally scowl at me as if they are smug figure skaters and I’m some sort of 1 legged mut-dog, who intruded on their figure skating practice and struggled for hours to bury a bone in the middle of the ice rink they skate on. With that said, I’ve wanted to put something together for Rob’s son for a while now. As mentioned though, I couldn’t bring myself to do it until now. Thing is, Bradley’s last ever HS wrestling match as a Senior in 2022 took place right in front of me…and it happened to be one of the 2 total losses he took in his entire 2nd half of his HS career… It was in the state finals against a great wrestler from Waverly-Shell Rock named McCrae Hagarty. Hill dropped a 5-2 decision against Hagarty to take 2nd at state as a Senior, solidifying his HS resume as a 4X state qualifier/3X Placer/2X Finalist/1X State Champion. Bradley went DNP-6-1-2 at state in HS. As a Junior, he was an undefeated state champion at 3A 220. As a Senior, he took a loss to an out of state kid during the regular season and when he faced Hagarty in the 3A 195 lb finals, it was a very anticipated matchup between two returning state champions. While Bradley was the returning 3A 220 State Champion, Hagarty was the returning 3A 182 state champion. At the end of the match, I don’t know what it was… Bradley took his loss like a man and didn’t pout or throw a fit or any of that jazz. In fact, he was acting real cool and social to everyone, including Hagarty when they were waiting to receive their awards. A very classy kid. However, he just had this vibe about him that prompted me to hold up a bit on writing one of these articles on him… I’ll reiterate, he was 100% classy after suffering a rare loss on one of the biggest and most stressful stages, but he just had this look in his eye that gave me the impression of….”I feel sorry for whoever tries to get in that dude’s way in the near future.” Some very detectable vibes of unfinished business going on with him, so I held off on writing an article about him… And I am glad I did, for this kid recently finished a Freestyle campaign in which he just bulldozed the competition at 3 rather prestigious events.
Let’s go back a bit.
Brad has been a good wrestler for a long time now. He competed at the AAU State Tournament several times and generally placed between 2nd-4th most years. His youth career reminds me a lot of the youth career of my youngest brother and Brad’s future teammate, Brennan’s. Here is why.. For a 10-year stretch, there were 3 Folkstyle Youth State tournaments in Iowa…AAU, USA and Grade School State (GSS). The biggest one is AAU… That one has been the biggest youth state wrestling tournament in Iowa since 1991. The smallest one is generally the USA State Folkstyle Tournament. A lot of people avoid that one because the divisions are separated by “year of birth.” The 2nd biggest youth state tourney in Iowa for at least a 10 year stretch prior to the passing of its founder, Brian Keck, was the Grade School State Tournament aka GSS. It’s a “grade-based” tournament with no district qualifier to compete in it. And because of that, it wasn’t uncommon to see brackets with up to 50-60 guys in it when GSS was at it’s peak. Anyways, my brother Brennan placed in the 2-4 range at AAU State every single year. He never won AAU and was always CLOSE, but he DID win 4 GSS State Championships, which was odd because it seemed like he had the same guys in his bracket at both AAU and GSS each of those years… he just wrestled better at GSS for whatever reason. Bradley Hill was apparently the same way. While he generally placed in the top 2-4 at AAU State, he won GSS State at least 3, maybe 4 times. I thought that was interesting.
Bradley first caught my radar when I was doing 3A rankings for The Predicament in 2019. Bradley was a Freshman at 3A 152 that year… a tough weight for a Freshman to be at considering the potential physical differences between them and the upperclassmen. He caught my radar when he had a close match with a kid who I have a high opinion of named Jake Matthaidess of North Scott. Matthaidess was a TOUGH upperclassman at the time and a “legend-killer” of sorts…he pulled off several “upsets” when he was a Freshman and Sophomore in HS and could seemingly go with anyone when he was “on.” Matthaidess and Hill met 3 times that season with Matthaidess winning all of them, 2 by decision and 1 by fall. The match that caught my eye was their first one… Matthaidess beat Bradley by the close score of 6-4. It kind of floored me at the time that a Freshman 152 lber could wrestle such a close match with an athletic freak like Matthaidess. The collision course those two had with each other would go on for just a couple-few weeks towards the end of the season, and those two ended up being the 2 guys from their district to qualify for the state tournament at 3A 152 that year. Matthaidess won the bracket at districts and went on to place 3rd at state. Bradley Hill would finish runner-up at districts and would go 0-2 at state that year, but the fact that he even qualified that year was impressive, for he had to beat a returning state qualifier and Senior from Clinton named Kyle Guilliams just to secure 2nd place at districts. And he didn’t just beat him… he pinned him in the 2nd period. Impressive feat for a Freshman at that weight against a returning state qualifier Senior. Bradley finished his Freshman season as a state qualifier with a 28-14 record. He would finish 2nd at Freestyle State and 1st at Greco State later that year.
This one is on Bradley Hill.. let me know if any others you’d like me to dig up…
Bradley Hill; Bettendorf HS/Iowa Hawkeyes/Sebolt Wrestling Academy
Brad Hill is a product of Bettendorf HS wrestling as well as Sebolt Wrestling Academy. Since the 2022 Iowa HS State Wrestling Tournament concluded, Brad has been a guy that I have been so close to writing one of these articles on and have wanted to, since he is a future teammate of my little brother Brennan’s at Iowa. Also, his father, Rob Hill runs a wrestling media outlet/platform called QCA Wrestle, which covers the wrestling scene in the Quad Cities area, and he has always been super cool to me. If it is one group of people in life that seems to have a collective disgust for me, it’s other wrestling media people, for whatever reason. Rob is one of the very few other wrestling media people who has always been very nice to that spazzy ‘ol Pin Doctor. When I talk to most other wrestling media, they generally scowl at me as if they are smug figure skaters and I’m some sort of 1 legged mut-dog, who intruded on their figure skating practice and struggled for hours to bury a bone in the middle of the ice rink they skate on. With that said, I’ve wanted to put something together for Rob’s son for a while now. As mentioned though, I couldn’t bring myself to do it until now. Thing is, Bradley’s last ever HS wrestling match as a Senior in 2022 took place right in front of me…and it happened to be one of the 2 total losses he took in his entire 2nd half of his HS career… It was in the state finals against a great wrestler from Waverly-Shell Rock named McCrae Hagarty. Hill dropped a 5-2 decision against Hagarty to take 2nd at state as a Senior, solidifying his HS resume as a 4X state qualifier/3X Placer/2X Finalist/1X State Champion. Bradley went DNP-6-1-2 at state in HS. As a Junior, he was an undefeated state champion at 3A 220. As a Senior, he took a loss to an out of state kid during the regular season and when he faced Hagarty in the 3A 195 lb finals, it was a very anticipated matchup between two returning state champions. While Bradley was the returning 3A 220 State Champion, Hagarty was the returning 3A 182 state champion. At the end of the match, I don’t know what it was… Bradley took his loss like a man and didn’t pout or throw a fit or any of that jazz. In fact, he was acting real cool and social to everyone, including Hagarty when they were waiting to receive their awards. A very classy kid. However, he just had this vibe about him that prompted me to hold up a bit on writing one of these articles on him… I’ll reiterate, he was 100% classy after suffering a rare loss on one of the biggest and most stressful stages, but he just had this look in his eye that gave me the impression of….”I feel sorry for whoever tries to get in that dude’s way in the near future.” Some very detectable vibes of unfinished business going on with him, so I held off on writing an article about him… And I am glad I did, for this kid recently finished a Freestyle campaign in which he just bulldozed the competition at 3 rather prestigious events.
Let’s go back a bit.
Brad has been a good wrestler for a long time now. He competed at the AAU State Tournament several times and generally placed between 2nd-4th most years. His youth career reminds me a lot of the youth career of my youngest brother and Brad’s future teammate, Brennan’s. Here is why.. For a 10-year stretch, there were 3 Folkstyle Youth State tournaments in Iowa…AAU, USA and Grade School State (GSS). The biggest one is AAU… That one has been the biggest youth state wrestling tournament in Iowa since 1991. The smallest one is generally the USA State Folkstyle Tournament. A lot of people avoid that one because the divisions are separated by “year of birth.” The 2nd biggest youth state tourney in Iowa for at least a 10 year stretch prior to the passing of its founder, Brian Keck, was the Grade School State Tournament aka GSS. It’s a “grade-based” tournament with no district qualifier to compete in it. And because of that, it wasn’t uncommon to see brackets with up to 50-60 guys in it when GSS was at it’s peak. Anyways, my brother Brennan placed in the 2-4 range at AAU State every single year. He never won AAU and was always CLOSE, but he DID win 4 GSS State Championships, which was odd because it seemed like he had the same guys in his bracket at both AAU and GSS each of those years… he just wrestled better at GSS for whatever reason. Bradley Hill was apparently the same way. While he generally placed in the top 2-4 at AAU State, he won GSS State at least 3, maybe 4 times. I thought that was interesting.
Bradley first caught my radar when I was doing 3A rankings for The Predicament in 2019. Bradley was a Freshman at 3A 152 that year… a tough weight for a Freshman to be at considering the potential physical differences between them and the upperclassmen. He caught my radar when he had a close match with a kid who I have a high opinion of named Jake Matthaidess of North Scott. Matthaidess was a TOUGH upperclassman at the time and a “legend-killer” of sorts…he pulled off several “upsets” when he was a Freshman and Sophomore in HS and could seemingly go with anyone when he was “on.” Matthaidess and Hill met 3 times that season with Matthaidess winning all of them, 2 by decision and 1 by fall. The match that caught my eye was their first one… Matthaidess beat Bradley by the close score of 6-4. It kind of floored me at the time that a Freshman 152 lber could wrestle such a close match with an athletic freak like Matthaidess. The collision course those two had with each other would go on for just a couple-few weeks towards the end of the season, and those two ended up being the 2 guys from their district to qualify for the state tournament at 3A 152 that year. Matthaidess won the bracket at districts and went on to place 3rd at state. Bradley Hill would finish runner-up at districts and would go 0-2 at state that year, but the fact that he even qualified that year was impressive, for he had to beat a returning state qualifier and Senior from Clinton named Kyle Guilliams just to secure 2nd place at districts. And he didn’t just beat him… he pinned him in the 2nd period. Impressive feat for a Freshman at that weight against a returning state qualifier Senior. Bradley finished his Freshman season as a state qualifier with a 28-14 record. He would finish 2nd at Freestyle State and 1st at Greco State later that year.
