Staff Photo by Laura-Chase McGehee/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Michael Keefe coaches wrestling for Dade County high schoolers and Dade County middle schoolers.Ridgeland and Dade County have wrestled each other once this season, but what’s important to Ridgeland coach Josh Keefe is that the two schools will wrestle again on Jan. 19 at Trenton.
It’s an opportunity to even the score against longtime competitor Michael Keefe, his twin.
The sibling rivalry might have been the difference when the first-year coaches’ teams met early in the season at the Heritage duals.
“He had just eight guys in his lineup and we had seven, so there were a lot of forfeits each way,” Michael said. “I wanted to win because it was his team, and I’m sure he felt the same.
“We have a youngster named Joey Tamborello, and as it turned out the outcome of the meet hinged on his match. He had injured his shoulder in a match earlier that day and I had planned to hold him out. He said, ‘Coach, I’m wrestling. You can’t lose to your brother’s team.’ He basically wrestled with one arm, but my kids probably thought about [the Keefe rivalry] more than I did.”
For brothers who’d been workout partners since Billy Broom recruited them out of the Ringgold High cafeteria and competitors since they were old enough to crawl, the loss didn’t sit so well with Josh, who is in the process of rebuilding Ridgeland’s program.
“It was rough losing to him,” Josh admitted. “They used to have to break us up in the [Ringgold] wrestling room because we went so hard.
“Everything was a competition whether we were wrestling or working out or whatever. Each of us wanted to be known as the dominant twin. One year I got second in the state and he finished first, and the question I hear most often is ‘Who’s better?’ I tell them each of us has our days.”
The two were of a similar mindset.
“The rivalry is really strong,” Michael said. “When we compete against each other, we take it personally. It was always harder to give up a takedown to Josh than somebody else. We always wanted to outdo each other. Who’s the best? It’s hard to say because I have always over-sized him, but we’re pretty evenly matched as far as competition goes.”
From Ringgold, the two went to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where Michael earned All-America honors at 141 pounds and Josh was a standout at 133. To this day Michael gives credit to Josh, the workout partner who pushed him every day.
“We shared a room until college was over and I took a job in Alabama and then in North Carolina,” Josh said. “That was the first time we had been apart, and it was rough on both of us. We’d always been a pair, and we were starting our lives as individuals.”
That separation has brought some maturity for sure. Michael could have crowed often and even obnoxiously after Dade’s early-season win.
“He has actually been really good about it,” Josh said. “He has changed a lot. As far as win at all costs, he sees things differently. We have become the same way. I don’t think either of us looks at the team score now but at the effort from the kids. You tell them, ‘I don’t care if you lose, but you better give me your best effort.’ We want these kids to take advantage of every opportunity they have.”
Added Michael: “I think it’s to the point where we loved to battle and compete but now we want to help each other more than compete.”