“Win: you live, lose: you die.”
Victor Voinovich III and Kael Voinovich still recall the message of Iowa men’s wrestling head coach Tom Brands, whose iconic line ventured from Iowa City to the brothers’ hometown of Brecksville, Ohio, thanks to their father, Victor Voinovich.
A former collegiate wrestler at Edinboro and Mount Union in Pennsylvania, Victor Voinovich wanted his boys in the right frame of mind for every practice. Every car ride, he’d force them to watch highlights of Tom and Terry Brands wrestling at Iowa while Disturbed’s “Down with the Sickness” blared in the background.
The aggressive, determined, Iowa-style wrestling was Victor Voinovich’s ideal goal for his sons, who grew up wearing Hawkeye T-shirts.
Now, his two sons are donning black Iowa singlets and competing at Carver-Hawkeye Arena as Iowa wrestlers under the Brands brothers. Despite a three year age gap, Victor Voinovich III and Kael Voinovich couldn’t be closer in college. The two are each others’ roommates, coaches, and biggest supporters.
“They get more nervous watching each other than they do competing themselves,” Victor Voinovich said.
The brothers’ wrestling journeys began at a young age and neither was a linear path. The elder brother, Victor Voinovich III, tried out wrestling in kindergarten and hated the sport. His dad put it simply: “He was getting his butt kicked.”
Victor Voinovich III preferred flag football, and when second grade rolled around, he wanted to switch to tackle. Doubtful his son was tough enough to make the transition, Victor Voinovich made him try wrestling again as proof he could handle the physicality.
A pudgy kid at the time, Victor Voinovich III still struggled in his return. His dad remembered one season starting out 0-12. Victor Voinovich coached on his sons’ teams for most of their youth. He explained how at younger ages, wrestlers who mature first win often, but once everyone grows up, technique determines who triumphs.
“You could see that he was going to be good. He was doing the right things,” Victor Voinovich said. “I knew it would be a matter of time, and fortunately, he believed that as well.”
While Victor Voinovich III listened to his father’s coaching, his brother interpreted the loud instruction differently. Kael Voinovich heard his father’s shouts not as passion, but anger. He stopped wrestling around second grade.
“I thought he just didn’t like me because of how bad I was doing,” Kael Voinovich said.
Outside of wrestling, the brothers grew up going to Catholic school and then were homeschooled before attending Brecksville High School, whose wrestling program competes on a national stage and where Victor Voinovich III’s career took off. The older brother won two state titles, three All-State honors, and five All-American nods.
A sixth-grade Kael Voinovich watched his older brother with both awe and a twinge of envy. Ever the rival, he didn’t want others thinking Victor Voinovich III as the superior athlete.
“I was like, ‘I can do better than him. Let me get back into this,’” Kael Voinovich said.
Despite his relative inexperience, Kael Voinovich possessed a natural talent. His dad said his younger son possesses more of a nasty streak and results were immediate. Kael Voinovich won a state title in seventh grade and began relying on Victor Voinovich III as a sparring partner, not trying to hurt each other but rather to learn.
But with Victor Voinovich III a prep star and Kael Voinovich gradually rising in his shadow, the sessions were initially more frustrating than constructive. Kael Voinovich lost often in their matchups, and his competitive nature made him take the defeats harshly at the time. His older brother, the one who rarely won a match as a kid, was now almost unbeatable, finishing as No. 1 in the nation twice for his weight class.
“‘He’s not a pudgy little fourth-grader, Kael,’” Victor Voinovich remembered telling his son.
Looking back on those sessions, Kael Voinovich is more grateful for the experience, noting he made his biggest jump in the sport during that time.
When Victor Voinovich III began his college career at Oklahoma State and transferred to Iowa two years later, Kael Voinovich followed along, winning high school state titles in both states. When it came time for Kael Voinovich to choose a college, his brother stepped in as a recruiter.
Kael Voinovich never wavered in following in his older brother’s footsteps, as Victor Voinovich III’s experience provided ample guidance. Whether it be training, cutting weight, or rehabbing from an injury, Victor Voinovich III’s choices paved a path for his younger brother’s success.
“He made a lot of mistakes I didn’t have to make,” Kael Voinovich said.
At Iowa, the Voinoviches compete one weight class apart, Victor Voinovich III at 157 pounds and Kael Voinovich at 149. Nevertheless, the sparring sessions continue. Tom Brands joked there would be eye pokes, jabs, and other brotherly antics on the mat, and Victor Voinovich III admitted some bouts would get heated. Yet after every practice, the Voinovich brothers return home and turn competition into collaboration.
“We’re just always looking to get better,” Victor Voinovich III said. “It’s nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of because I teach him and he teaches me. It’s great to have someone as high level as your brother.”