Cody Thorn
There are a few familiar faces in the room at Spartan Mat Club in Fort Worth.
High school teammates Kody Tanimoto and Brodie Bedford were practicing ahead of the 2024 Air Force Special Warfare Junior National Duals in Tulsa.
The two were both TAPPS state champions this year for All Saints Episcopal in Fort Worth during the high school season.
Now, they have a chance to represent Texas in this competition.
For Tanimoto, it will be his last go-around before heading to North Dakota State, where he will wrestle for the Bison.
In nine of 10 tournaments since the high school season, he’s taken first place and was in the finals of all 10 — the exception in title wins was the Nebraska Freestyle Championships in April.
Last week, he was at a tournament but wasn’t wrestling.
He was an assistant coach for Team Texas at the 16U Junior Duals in Herriman, Utah.
“I learned a lot from being on the other side of the program,” he said. “The experience, the lessons I learned, I grew a lot of respect for all the coaches out there.”
He said it was a fun experience overall, but he said he also lived a lot more with the outcome of matches that he didn’t have full control over — but was emotionally involved in all of them….
