Sibling rivalry is common, especially between brothers who are close in age. And with the competition between brothers usually comes the arguments and fights.
But for Garrett and Taylor Cummings, their sibling rivalry had a different twist. They fought with technique.
Instead of pushing and shoving or punching each other like normal kids, they were running wrestling moves.
“They started wrestling around the house as soon as Taylor was old enough to walk,” Todd Cummings, Taylor and Garrett’s father, said. “The great thing about having a brother in this sport is that you always have a partner to wrestle with. There were many matches here on the living-room floor.”
Growing up in a family with a wrestling background certainly led to this early competition. Todd, a high-school wrestling coach in Bloomsburg, Pa., where the kids grew up, wrestled in college at Bloomsburg University and coached both Garrett and Taylor in high school.
And while the Cummings household is a wrestling clan, the boys remember their mom hating it when they fought inside.
“I just remember hearing, every time we started roughhousing, ‘You boys are like bulls in a china shop,'” Garrett said. “And then having to go outside to finish.”
However, it wasn’t until Garrett was in middle school that the boys started wrestling in serious competition. And for Garrett, wrestling wasn’t even his first choice.
According to Todd, Garrett was interested in gymnastics and had some friends who were in a gymnastics club around Bloomsburg. But as a wrestling coach, Todd proposed another outlet for the youngster’s liveliness.
“I thought, boy, what better for a little kid than to put him in a padded room for an hour or so to release energy,” Todd said. “And that’s where the wrestling really got started.”Taylor, three years younger than Garrett, said once his brother got involved, he naturally followed suit.
“[My dad] got my brother started and I always looked up to my bother. So when he started going then I really wanted to do everything he did,” Taylor said. “I guess that’s the younger brother role.”
Along with their early love of the sport also came a love for N.C. State. Even though the school was so far away, the boys had a connection to it that came from another member of the family, their uncle Dave.
Dave Cummings wrestled for the Wolfpack and, according to Taylor, endorsed the University around him and his brother when they were kids.
“When we were little my uncle would always be buying us stuff from the bookstore. I would always be wearing N.C. State football jerseys and shorts and T-shirts,” Taylor said. “I didn’t even see the campus until I was at least a freshman in high school when I came to wrestling camp, but I was always promoting N.C. State all the way through middle school.”
Todd said the ties to State started even earlier than Taylor and Garrett could remember.
“We have pictures of both Garrett and Taylor as little babies wearing N.C. State stuff,” he said. “So the idea of going to N.C. State was hammered into their heads from an early age.”Nowadays the brothers are teammates on the wrestling team.
Garrett, a redshirt senior, wrestles in the 133-pound weight class and Taylor, a redshirt freshman, wrestles at 125 pounds. And with their weights being so close, they have the opportunity to square off against one another on a daily basis.
But as for the nature of the rivalry now, coach Carter Jordan describes it as “not as hostile as you might think.”
“They go at each other — don’t get me wrong.” Jordan said. “But I’ve coached four sets of twins and there were a couple of sets that I couldn’t let them wrestle each other because I was afraid they would kill each other.”
Garrett attributes the civil nature of the matches in practice to the differences in the personalities of the two as they’ve gotten older.
“It probably could be bad if he had the same kind of personality as me,” Garrett said. “Just because I get more frustrated and react to other things. But if I’m getting too aggressive he’ll be the one to stop and say, ‘Is something the matter?’ But if it was me wrestling myself I would probably want to fight me.”
Taylor admits that when he wrestles his brother, Garrett still wins most of the time but the possibility of hostility is definitely not out of the question.
“It hasn’t been that intense,” Taylor said. “But now, as the season is progressing, it’s obviously getting a little more intense. There hasn’t been fists flying yet. But I wouldn’t rule it out.”
As for this season, the team is five matches in and Garrett is 2-3 having recently dropped three consecutive matches. But despite the early losses, the senior is still hopeful he can reach the goals he’s set for his final season.
“I want to finish strong,” he said. “I’ve wanted to be an ACC champion this whole time and that’s right there. And I definitely want to be out at nationals and make the biggest splash as possible.”
Garrett, a team captain for the third straight year who moved up a weight class last year for the benefit of the team, added the team goals are what really drives him.
“I really want to see this team, in my senior year, do something on the national level,” he said. “And we can be ACC champs and that would be something real special, too.”
Taylor, who has broken into the lineup three times already this season, is 2-1 and, according to Jordan and Garrett, has the potential to go beyond what his brother has done.
“He’s going to be real good,” Garrett said. “He’s got a lot more natural tools than I do.”
“[Taylor] can be better than his brother,” Jordan said. “His brother’s probably not going to want to hear it, but it’s the youngest brother that’s the best usually, especially in our sport. [Taylor] really competes well just like his brother, just like his dad and just like his uncle. They are all tough guys and very competitive people.”