Feb 27, 2022 8 min read

Even the best athletes can use some helping hands from time to time.

Damon Brown, a PIAA wrestling champion from Trinity High School in 1992, knows that better than most.

Not only did the many hands that helped mold Brown’s schoolboy wrestling career push him on a course to greatness, it was the touch of a hand rehabilitation specialist – Ann Miller – who helped Brown overcome a hand (thumb) injury to reach his goal as a senior.

Brown is forever grateful to those who pointed him in the direction of winning a state championship.

Thirty years later, Brown reflects on achieving his goal and he credits his coaches at Trinity: head coach John Abajace, and assistants Angelo “Butch” Marino, Ron Junko and Mike Marino.

“Wrestling is a brotherhood,” said Brown. “From wrestling at the Brownson House through Trinity, there’s a bond. “So many people helped me – fellow wrestlers and coaches – along the way.

“My coaches pushed me, trying to get me to give everything I had. Until my senior year, I didn’t do that and I fell short. But they stressed taking care of every little detail, conditioning like never before. Before my senior year, I realized they were right and the only way to get it done was to prepare better and do it more often.”

To a man, Abajace, and brothers Butch and Mike Marino agree that Brown did improve his work ethic and his focus and it carried through his senior season.

“I remember when he was a junior, we were running in the halls at Trinity,” Butch Marino explained. “The proper way was to sprint and reach out and touch the wall and sprint back to another wall. Damon never touched the wall.

“It was just his way and I called him out about it. Then I said to John, ‘You are aware Damon doesn’t touch the wall when he is running sprints?’ John replied, ‘That’s why he can’t win the state championship.’ “

Brown admittedly liked to have fun – even in the intense Trinity wrestling room. He understood the hard work, but as a high school student, Brown liked to do things his way.

That was until the reality of having just one more season to win a state crown hit him.

“To be honest, I didn’t put in enough hard work,” Brown said. “My teammates, so many of them, worked harder than I had. If I had put in the same work and sacrifice of those guys, I would have had a chance to be a three-time state champion.

“I didn’t match their diligence or focus. I just asked myself what the coaches asked me. Are you working hard enough? Are you serious enough? I was not.”

He made the change and vowed to win a state title.

“I had coached Damon in junior high and then moved up with him when he went to varsity,” Mike Marino said. “His talent was off the charts.

“He spent a lot of time with me and in my home. We used a lot of psychology with him. He’d pack a suitcase and stay with me.”

The 6 a.m. workouts that not many knew about with Mike Marino and Brown were a catalyst for better training and focus.

“When Butch asked me if I was touching every wall, running as hard as I could and basically questioning my work ethic, I had to be honest with him and myself. I wasn’t doing everything I could to be a champion.”

The Marinos were his task masters, his conscience and his mentors.

Butch Marino is a two-time state champion in the 1970s, Abajace a state champion as well. Mike Marino not only touched his mind but grabbed his soul.

Abajace said the change in attitude toward training was the key element from being a top-notch wrestler to an excellent one.

“He was just so talented,” Abajace said. ‘He had natural quickness and strength. If you looked at him, he was not muscular. But Damon had great strength and power.

“Early on in his career, he had excellent success. But he still wasn’t doing what he was capable of. I think his relationship with his father, Howard Paige, was an important part of Damon coming of age. He helped Damon understand that what the coaches were asking him to do was to realize his talent and train appropriately. That was the key to the turnaround and attitude toward training.

Abajace chuckled when told the Marinos confirmed that Brown’s training habits in his first two seasons frustrated Abajace.

“Damon was a fun-loving kid,” Abajace said. “Everybody liked him because of his personality. He liked doing things his own way. He was special. He had all the tools one could ever want.”

One for the Thumb

Brown was a section champion, a WPIAL runnerup and fourth in the PIAA as a sophomore in the 1989-90 season, going 33-6-2 at 140 pounds. As a junior, Brown posted a 38-2 record, winning section and WPIAL championships and placing third in the PIAA Championships.

As a senior, Brown was 37-1, losing only to Joe Williams – a three-time Illinois state champion who won 10 U.S. national and three NCAA crowns for Iowa and was a fifth-place finish in the 2004 Olympics.

Brown lost to Williams in the finals of what is now known as the Powerade Tournament. Williams took Brown down five times to earn a 10-5 victory.

Brown went to work on his takedown techniques – another turning point for him.

Speaking of turning points, Brown was lethal as a rider and he scored often from the defensive position using his power and strength to literally turn anyone with his vaunted tilt.

Abajace credited Butch Marino for teaching Brown the technique to utilize the tilt.

But Marino takes no credit.

“Damon was one great athlete,” Butch Marino said. “He had so much God-given talent. He was quick, had great balance, a great grip. He had just scratched the surface in his first two years. After a tough, somewhat controversial loss in the state semifinals as a junior, we explained to him that he needed to be good enough to not allow a referee’s call to defeat him.

“Damon was fun to coach. I think the hand injury gave him an extra (mental) push. He did not want to make an excuse for not winning the state championship as a senior.”

In part, Miller had much to do with that title. She believed in Brown as much as he did her.

In an Observer-Reporter news story in March 1992, Miller talked about her experience with Brown, who was referred to Miller by Dr. Janet Bjerke.

“Damon was lucky to have (Bjerke) as a doctor,” Miller told the paper. “She explained anatomically the problem, and she also told me about his history with wrestling.

“She simply told me, ‘We have a state championship contender here, scholarship material. He needs splinted, he can’t quit wrestling. I was well aware that the thumb injury was not going to interfere with his wrestling.

Miller put Brown through tough rehabilitation. He, in his own words, put Miller through “hell.”

“I wanted to quit because it really hurt,” Brown explained. “After all that work and training. . . she molded my hand, worked with me constantly. She customized splints.”

The coaches knew it was the only way for Brown to have a chance to reach his dream.

“Howard took him all over to find the right place,” Abajace said.

“I could not have even finished a season without her,” Brown said, “let alone win a state championship. I could not have done it without her.

“I was a pain in the (behind) to her. But it all goes back to Ann. I’m so thankful to her and my parents.”

Brown reached his goal March 14, 1992, by defeating Joe Farr of Warren, 9-1, in the PIAA finals. He finished with a 108-9-2 record and was one of the Hillers’ greatest wrestlers.

“Damon had vast talents, an awareness of leverage, speed and balance that were just uncommon,” Abajace said. “He just put his mind to it that he was going to do it no matter what.

“I did have great wrestlers. Without a doubt, he’s one of the greatest. A lot of guys would have used the hand injury as a reason not to get it done. Not Damon. Not that year. Without a doubt, Damon is in the same arena with the great Trinity wrestlers.”

These days, Brown, who wrestled two years at Clarion University, works a couple of jobs – mostly night – and he plays golf almost every day.

“I like all sports, but I love golf,” he added.

He and his wife, Melinda, reside in Wisconsin. Brown has three children, Torrey, 23, Dante, 21, and Nadia, 16.

Brown gets back to Washington. He credits the likes of his cousins for getting him into wrestling and he golfs with Joe Burgess and credits his former Hillers’ wrestlers B.C. Cowden, Tim Morgan and Damon Alexas, among others for his success.

He was inducted into the Trinity High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.

“People sometimes just don’t understand what goes into things,” Mike Marino said. “I was as proud of him as he was proud of himself. It took great effort. Damon took care of his business. He took to the 6 a.m. workouts and did everything he could. It was a big effort. There’s a special feeling for everyone who was part of it.”