Resilient is a descriptor that immediately comes to mind when summarizing Brian Fox’s four years at Kent County High School, especially his three years as a varsity wrestler.
A triple-threat in football, wrestling and baseball, he suffered a broken wrist during his freshman year on the gridiron, which put him in a cast from October to January and kept him off the mat for the season.
The following year he placed fourth in the state at 119 pounds, despite battling a chronic back injury for weeks. He went 14-0 in dual matches and was 43-5 overall with 26 pins in 2000.
The next two seasons, there was no one better in Maryland’s Class 1A/2A division at 119 pounds than Brian, who would go on to be a two-time team MVP, a two-time district champion and a region champion — as well as a two-time state title winner.
Brian (Class of 2002) was one of five athletes inducted into Kent County High School’s Hall of Fame on Saturday, Oct. 18. The Evening Enterprise is telling their stories, one at a time, in the order of their year of graduation.
As a junior in 2001, Brian went 18-0 in dual matches and 38-3 overall with 19 pins.
He took down defending champion Pete Stein of Northern Garrett, 7-5, in the finals to win his first state title, building a 7-2 lead after a scoreless first period.
At the conclusion of the season Brian was named to the All-Mid-Shore first team and inducted into the District VII-VIII Hall of Fame.
Kent went 17-1, which included shutouts of Queen Anne’s, 75-0, and St. Michaels, 77-0. The loss was 38-33 to Parkside during the regular season, though Brian bumping up to 130 pounds won with a first-period pin
The Class 1A/2A state dual-match and state tournament champion, Kent finished the season ranked third in Maryland among all schools of all sizes — public and private — behind Paint Branch and Archbishop Curley.
In the state duals, Kent defeated Owings Mills in the semis, 35-25, and Northern Garrett in the finals, 42-27. Brian won both of his matches — 7-6 at 125 pounds in the match against Owings Mills and 12-10 in overtime at 130 in the match against Northern Garrett.
As a senior captain in 2002, Brian went 16-2 in dual matches and 35-5 overall with 18 pins. He had the team’s fastest pin of the season, 14 seconds.
Brian repeated on the All-Mid-Shore first team, captured a second district title and claimed his first region title. The year before in the region finals, leading 7-4 with just 36 seconds to go, he was disqualified when his opponent sustained a back injury and was not able to continue.
Brian’s career record of 116-13 places him in the program’s elite 100-win club.
Kent County’s milestone 300th win came against Stephen Decatur, 57-16, on Jan. 16, 2002, when Brian won by a 17-1 technical fall.
Kent repeated as the 1A/2A state tournament champion.
Brian surrendered just four points in the two-day tournament at what was then known as Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College). In the title bout, he schooled Wheaton’s Francis Jeffry-Idum with a 10-2 major decision after racing out to a 10-0 lead.
Kent again went 17-1 and finished the season ranked fifth in the state. The lone loss was to Owings Mills, 36-25, in the state dual-match finals.
All told, Brian was a member of the 2000, 2001 and 2002 Bayside Conference and 1A/2A East Region dual-match championship teams, and the 1A/2A state championship teams of 2001 and 2002.
Brian entered the workforce upon graduation from KCHS. For 16 years he worked for David A. Bramble Inc., where he was a foreman. For the last four years he has been a tractor-trailer driver.
The father of three children, ages 5, 12 and 14, Brian, his wife and family live in Millington.
