FEBRUARY 2024

SPORTS
Brendin Yatooma: Kind-Hearted Wrestler
BY STEVE STEIN
Brendin Yatooma takes down Northern Illinois’ Carter Grewe during the Michigan State Open in November. Yatooma won 5-1.
Brendin Yatooma’s athletic resume
is impressive. He’s also
an impressive human being.
Just ask Aaron Babicz, the longtime
athletic director at Novi Detroit Catholic
Central High School.
Yatooma graduated from Catholic
Central in 2020 after being an outstanding
football player and wrestler for the
Shamrocks. He also served as senior
class president at Catholic Central
and was a board member for the Caleb
White Project, a not-for-profit run by
students from across the Detroit area
that works to alleviate homelessness.
“I’ve known Brendin for a long
time,” Babicz said. “He’s an old soul
who has always been mature for his
age and is kind-hearted. He’s stoic,
but he has a great sense of humor. And
he has a blue-collar work ethic he got
from his parents.”
Yatooma, 21, is a senior academically
at the University of Michigan and
a member of the nationally ranked Wolverines
wrestling team, with two years
of eligibility remaining after this season.
He makes his way back to Catholic
Central often, especially during the offseason
for wrestling, and occasionally
acts as a mentor and sounding board
for current Shamrocks athletes.
“I love to see Brendin come back
to our school because he’s a servant
leader,” Babicz said. “I’ve seen him
encourage a kid who just missed a
tackle or lost a tough wrestling match.
“He exemplifies the Catholic Central
culture. I miss having him around,
but he makes us appreciative of the
work we do with kids.”
Culture is one of the main reasons
why Yatooma chose to attend U-M at
the end of an exhaustive recruiting
process. “U-M was most similar to
what I was used to at Catholic Central,”
he said. “There’s a family culture
and a winning culture there. You’re
more than just a Division I athlete.”
In addition to choosing a college
while he was being recruited, Yatooma
had to choose a sport. He was a threeyear
starter and two-time All-Catholic
League linebacker in football at Catholic
Central. He had 88 tackles and four
sacks in his senior season.
He also was a two-time individual
state champion wrestler for the Shamrocks,
winning titles in the 215-pound
weight class in 2019 and 2020, and a
contributor to four team state championships.
He went 162-26 in his Catholic
Central wrestling career, including 49-1
as a senior, and he had 97 career pins.
Yatooma received football offers
from Central Michigan University and
several smaller schools. He chatted
with U-M coaches about possibly playing
football and wrestling there.
“That would have been too tough,”
Yatooma said. “Wrestling practice
starts in November, so there would
PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL
have been an overlap of seasons. Plus,
I have a tough major (economics).”
In the end, Yatooma chose U-M
and wrestling. “It was tough to give up
football,” he said. “I’d been playing
football since I was in first or second
grade. I missed football a lot in my early
years at U-M. Now I’m content with
my decision.
“Looking back, I just didn’t feel
the pull for football like I did for wrestling.
I felt it was God’s calling for me
to wrestle.”
Yatooma will graduate from U-M
this spring with a bachelor’s degree in
economics. He said he plans to stay at
U-M and wrestle for at least one more
year so he can pursue a master’s degree
in management in the Stephen M. Ross
School of Business before he embarks
on a career in the financial world.
Yatooma has been bit by the injury
bug a couple times during his U-M
wrestling career. After being a starter
last season and competing for U-M in
the Big Ten tournament, he’s been battling
an elbow injury this season and
had competed in only five matches
through mid-January. His collegiate
career record at the time was 14-27.
Yatooma went 2-2 and finished in
fourth place at the annual Michigan
State Open on November 11. He defeated
Michigan State’s Kael Wisler
4-2 and Northern Illinois’ Carter
Grewe 5-1.
A star in the classroom at Catholic
Central, Yatooma has continued his academic
success at U-M. He was a Michigan
High School Athletic Association
Academic All-State selection in 2020,
and he was named to the Academic All-
Big Ten team the last two years.
Yatooma said wrestling has helped
his academics through the years.
“Wrestling teaches you to be disciplined
and make sacrifices when you
need to,” he said.
Yatooma’s parents are Adam, a
key account executive for Google, and
Tara. He has a younger brother Logan,
19, a former Catholic Central lacrosse
player who’s now a freshman at Michigan
State University. The family lives
in South Lyon.
32 CHALDEAN NEWS FEBRUARY 2024