Silencing The Doubt: Branson John’s Unique Recruitment and Big Ten Breakthrough

It was just another high school meet for Branson John. The scouts weren’t there for him, but it was a day that would change his life forever. 

He was competing for Buchanan High School in Clovis, California, a school he had worked hard to earn a spot at. It was a big tournament for John in his make-or-break senior season. 

Maryland wrestling was in attendance, looking at another athlete. One look at John, however, made the Terps immediately pivot on their plans.

“I ended up beating the kid they were looking at, so that kind of got my name out there,” John said. “After that, they started recruiting me.”

Years of fighting off doubt and being his own support system paid off in minutes. Maryland offered him on the spot, creating a partnership that’s already paid off for both in the competitive Big Ten.

“I was just trying to get my name out there because I didn’t have any schools really talking to me,” John said. “I hadn't really even started much for my high school team. It was kind of a make-or-break year, so I just had to do everything I could to get my name out there, so I was battling in every match and trying to make the best of every opportunity.”

Maryland gave him a chance to continue making a name for himself and to demonstrate to everyone that he had what it took to succeed. 

“When we saw him wrestle, we knew he had that potential,” Clemsen said. “We were tracking another guy, but said, ‘wait, this guy from California is pretty good.’ By the end of the day, I had contact with him. You just follow your gut with stuff like that. You don’t need to make it harder than it has to be.”

But there’s another wrinkle in his unique path to College Park. Maryland watching him wrestle and offering him wasn’t actually John’s first interaction with the program. When Clemsen was at a home visit for current redshirt sophomore Dario Lemus, John was there. Not to promote himself, but to support a friend. 

“Fast forward, we see Branson compete, and it’s like ‘wait, I’ve already interacted with this kid. I’ve already sat down and been in a home with him. We took pictures together,’” Clemsen said. “So to see him compete then was pretty cool. Bringing him on was easy at that point. He had already heard the pitch. He had seen what we were about. His friend was out here living it and experiencing it and could validate it. I think it helped that he had already seen us in a different capacity.”

Once the attention finally turned to John, his preexisting bond with Lemus was a key pillar in getting him to College Park. 

“I talked to Dario a lot, who was already out here,” John said. “He was a big piece in that, and I just kind of went to bed one night and thought, ‘I feel like the right decision will come to me’. I woke up the next morning, and the decision was Maryland.”

He signed with Clemsen and the Terps before ever setting foot on campus. Lemus vouched for the program and the process, and John was hungry to finally take advantage of a chance he had worked so hard to earn. 

“It’s rare to have someone sign without a visit,” Clemsen said. “I’ve been coaching for almost 20 years, and I think that’s the only time it’s happened like that. It’s pretty cool. I think it’s a testament to the good job we do communicating. We got creative. It was a very unique situation.”

Clemsen and his staff impressed John… over Zoom. Virtual tours and FaceTime calls showed him everything he needed to see to land Maryland as his next home. 

“I think those experiences growing up just make him want to win, to validate or prove himself and show that he’s got a chip on his shoulder that’s a little bigger than some guys’,” Clemsen said. “I think you see it in the way he fights. He’s been really consistent this year and shows really good effort time in and time out. He’s starting to become a little bit of a leader in that regard.”

It was a golden opportunity to compete for a great program in an elite conference. Clemsen has often compared Big Ten wrestling to SEC football, an analogy John echoes. 

“It's Big Ten wrestling,” John said. “Wrestling has always gone through the Ben Ten. It's where the toughest guys are. You know that coming in, so I'd absolutely agree with that statement.”

But some thought the Big Ten lights would shine too bright for John. To prove himself on the biggest stage, he’d have to silence a lot of doubters. 

“It took a lot of trust in myself and belief that I can make it work,” John said. “But I also had people telling me that I was only going to rest in the Big Ten and I’d be so far from home. A lot of people were doubting me and thinking I wouldn’t make it, and that's just another reason that I planned on making it work, to prove those people wrong.”

He’s still taking advantage of every chance he gets to prove himself. In his freshman year at Maryland, John won a handful of Big Ten meets and qualified for the NCAA Tournament, where he competed in two matches.

“It was super rewarding,” John said. “I feel like having the ability to wrestle with Jaxon Smith and Ethan Laird almost every day, and just the partners and coaching I have around me, really helped elevate my style and wrestling.”

But more than anything, last season was an emphatic affirmation of the skills that only John knew he had. 

“I'd say I wrestle for myself,” John said. “No one really knew who I was in high school. Coming in, still, no one knew who I was. I want to get my name out there and be the guy that people know about.”

He waited for an opportunity. He watched others get scouted and sign. It could have been a deterrent, pushing him away from the sport, but John used it as another reason to pursue his dreams. 

“It's something that fueled me,” John said. “I knew what I was and what I'm capable of doing, so it just helped fuel me to get to where I want to be, and I knew the school that would take the chance on me, it would work out for both of us.”

A self-proclaimed “homebody,” John is as mellow as they come off the mat. Video games, staying fit, and days lounging at the pool fill his summers as he preps for more grueling seasons in the Big Ten — a conference that’s teaching the sophomore lessons with every passing meet.

“I love the aspect that it's you and the other person,” John said. “You can't blame someone else for losing. You can't blame a defense or an offense. It's your defense, and it's your offense out there. It's you versus the other guy. It's who's going to operate better when they're tired. That's all it really comes down to. In reality, the sport sucks, but you’ve got to love it and embrace it. Your body's going to feel terrible, and you’ve got to love that feeling and be willing to work through it.”

John’s still his own primary motivation, and he’s learned that he can be, in his own words, as good as he wants to be. 

“For a young guy, he settled in, and now he can really focus on his craft and getting better and pushing himself,” Clemsen said. “He’s still got a lot of work to do, and he knows that. I think with the lessons he’s learning and the hunger he has, he’s made some pretty big jumps.”

He’s in a new weight class, but he has the same hunger for success. He's ranked in the top-20 in the 197 weight class after starting the season unranked and underlooked once again.

John continues to take the mat with the intensity that earned him a spot, even though nobody but himself believed in him. Maryland recognized his raw talent, and Clemsen’s program is turning him into a superstar with each passing meet.