No matter if it's a huge international wrestling meet in the Dominican Republic or a car ride to Virginia to get to a practice to hone their skills, it's all about getting better at their sport for Joey and Fred Bachmann.
"Make no mistake about it," Faith Christian head wrestling coach Ben Clymer said. "This is what the Bachmanns are about.
"They dedicate at least three to five hours a day, every single day, to wrestling. And they've been doing it since they were 4 or 5 years old. Nothing has been handed to them, it's just been about hard work. They love everything about the sport and will do whatever it takes to keep getting better at it."
For example: Last Saturday, both Joey, a rising sophomore at Faith Christian, and younger brother Fred, a soon-to-be freshman at Faith Christian, both claimed gold medals at the 17-and-under Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Two days later, they were in a car headed to Virginia for a high-level wrestling club practice, all in the name of doing what needs to be done to be among the best at any level of the sport. It's wrestling 24/7/365.
When asked what they do when they're not wrestling, Joey just laughed and said, "We're always wrestling."
And what they do on the mat is no joke.
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Joey, who also won a Pan Am Gold last summer, entered the last high school wrestling season with as much, and probably more, hype than any freshmen in District One history.
He was ranked No. 1 in the nation in his weight class (107 pounds) before the season started and all he did was go 38-0, tearing through the PIAA Class 2A tournament with two technical falls before handing 49-0 Dominic Deputy of Chestnut Ridge his only loss of the season, a 6-1 decision.
"Joey thrives in the big tournaments and is always up to the challenge," Clymer said. "He loves facing the best competition out there."
Fred, who won a 15-and-under Pan Am Games medal last summer, will enter his freshman year at Faith Christian with similar hype.
"Fred will be ready to go," Clymer said. "The brothers are so competitive and when they wrestle each other in practice they really go at it.
"It's a lot of fun to watch because as you would expect, they don't give each other an inch."
In the Dominican Republic, the brothers, who live in North Wales but wrestle for Puerto Rico in international events, were dominant.
Fred, wrestling at 51 kilograms (112 pounds), outscored his three opponents 23-9 including a 10-0 win in the gold medal match against Columbia's Jhon Deiby Ramirez Munoz.
Joey, at 55 kilograms (121 pounds), ran up 31 points in his four matches while surrendering just seven. He topped Venezuela's Gabriel Jose Licon Ramirez 5-2 in the final to win his second Pan-Am gold.
Their showings qualified the brothers for the upcoming under-17 World Championships in Amman, Jordan beginning Aug. 19.
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"I've been trying to get bigger and went up in weight," Joey Bachmann said. "It was a challenge because the kids I wrestled were bigger in size, but they weren't a lot stronger than I was.
"And it was really cool to be there with my brother and see him do really well."
They would like to see both do the same at the upcoming world championships.
"We both want to go to worlds and wrestle as best as we can," Fred Bachmann said. "Our goals are the same and that's to win."
Drew Markol covers local sports forPhillyBurbs.com. Support our journalism with a subscription.
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