U23 World Team Trials champion Muhamed McBryde takes an unconventional path to success

McBryde squaring off with Anthony Mantanona. Photo by Sam Janicki.

Muhamed McBryde came into the 2019 U23 World Team Trials Tournament unseeded. Seven wins later, he was the 79 kg men’s freestyle champion and Team USA’s likely representative for the U23 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, later this year. While McBryde’s results might have surprised some, he knew what to expect from himself.
“I wasn’t shocked. I just wanted to do what I knew I could. I wasn’t worried about winning or not, I just didn’t want to underperform. That was my biggest driver. I went into every match knowing that I could hang with these guys and probably go above and beyond that,” McBryde said.
A 22 year old New York native who trains at his alma mater, the University of Buffalo with the Buffalo Wrestling Club RTC, McBryde is familiar with going above and beyond comparatively. While most college students wrap up their freshman year at 19 years old, McBryde was finishing up his bachelor’s degree in history and sociology. Homeschooled at an accelerated pace as a youth, McBryde began taking college courses at Erie Community College at the age of 14.
“My parents didn’t really trust in the public school system, so they decided to handle it themselves and homeschool us. Eventually, it got to a point with my older sister and me where my dad didn’t really know what the next step was. So we looked into taking community college classes”, McBryde said.
“At first, we just took one class, and we did pretty well in it. Then we decided we were just going to go ahead and do it full time,” he said.
Muhamed and his older sister Aminah are the eldest siblings in a house with seven kids, all of whom are homeschooled. The two oldest McBryde children paved a path for their younger siblings to follow. Now all of them are on the accelerated college route.
One circumstance that came along with being homeschooled was that McBryde was unable to compete in any high school wrestling programs. A wrestler since the age of six, McBryde was limited to wrestling for his club, Cobra Wrestling Academy and entering open tournaments. However, he doesn’t have any regrets about foregoing a more traditional education.
“It could have been different, sure. I could have been doing a bunch of other stuff, and I could have wrestled through high school. But I can’t complain at all. Where I am right now, I have the whole world open to me, and I’m doing what I love,” he said.
McBryde enrolled at the University of Buffalo at the age of 16 with the intention of joining the school’s wrestling team. His father, Mustafa, also wrestled for the University of Buffalo and was teammates with the current Head Coach, John Stutzman. However, given his age and lack of high school results, McBryde was unsure if he was going to be able to compete on the team.
“Stutzman let me know I could try out for the team. He said there’d be a three-month try out period, and then he’d let me know if he still wanted me around. I made it through that, and I’ve been here since,” he said.
McBryde didn’t wrestle his first year on the team due to eligibility issues, some stemming from his young age and others due to his religious beliefs. As a practicing Muslim, McBryde does not shave his beard in accordance with his faith. At the time, the NCAA prohibited wrestlers from competing with beards. Eventually, McBryde was able to petition the NCAA and was granted the ability to compete as long as he wore a beard covering.
“My parents and Coach Stutzman and the NCAA compliance office handled that. By my second year here, I was good to go,” McBryde said.
Islam has always been at the forefront of his life and was a major reason his parents decided to homeschool their children.
“I think that was the primary driver in their decision. They decided they wanted to stick to certain tenets of the faith. We didn’t have TV. We didn’t listen to music growing up. It was central in me being raised, and it was the guiding factor behind everything more or less,” McBryde said.
“Being Muslim, being African-American, and being a wrestler are the three things my life is built around,” he said.
After graduating, McBryde went on to earn his master’s degree at UB in exercise physiology. In the future, he wants to work as a personal trainer. For now though, he plans to continue wrestling fulltime while working part-time as a day aid, helping individuals with disabilities cook, clean and do other household activities.
“For now I’m going to keep trying to wrestle. I’m going to be competing for the next few years at least. Eventually I want to get into possibly coaching, but mostly personal training and that kind of thing. That would be my goal. But for now, I’m just thinking about wrestling,” McBryde said.
“I’m committed to the team here. They’ve been instrumental in my growth and the success I’ve had. I think I can keep growing a lot here and help the team as well. I don’t want to leave that,” he said.
McBryde’s growth was on display at U23 World Team Trials. In the opening round he defeated Tyler Morland, a 2019 NCAA qualifier for Northwestern, 5-2. In the semifinals he defeated Ben Harvey, an NCAA qualifier and round-of-12 finisher for Army, 8-0. In the best-of-three finals he defeated Oklahoma’s Anthony Mantanona two matches to none, 6-6 and 12-2.
He believes the most important reason for his success, on and off the mat, has been his support system.
“My family is one of the biggest reasons I’ve been able to achieve what I have, especially my parents and my older sister. Also, my club wrestling coaches, Jeff Denz and Keith Maute. They’ve helped me in more ways than I could list, and without them I probably wouldn’t be wrestling,” McBryde said.