Brian Stann – All-American

By Thomas Gerbasi

He’s straight out of central casting - the six foot one war hero, complete with blue eyes, strong chin, a former NFL cheerleader for a wife, a baby on the way, and the interest of a nation that wants to know all about where he’s been and where he’s going.

Just witness the media blitz on 26-year old Brian Stann, which has seen his story chronicled from MTV to the New York Times over the past few months as he engages in his successful new career as a light heavyweight mixed martial artist for the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) organization.

But Scranton, Pennsylvania’s Stann is still a soldier. Not only in his day job, as the Company Commander for Ace Marine Regiment Headquarters Company at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, but in his heart as well, as he prepares to possibly leave the good life here in the States behind for a third tour of duty in Iraq. In fact, if not for the intervention of his wife Teressa, he may have already been back there.

“There were some opportunities for me to go back sooner with some training teams to go train the Iraqi army, and to be honest, the only thing that kept me from doing that was my pregnant wife, who is basically the only person in this world that I feel can kick my butt,” laughed Stann. “She basically told me that volunteering to leave right away again was a no go. And being present for the birth of my daughter in October is very important to me. It’s an opportunity a lot of Marines and soldiers don’t get because of the war, and I’m fortunate enough with the timing that I should be there for it.”

Currently, Stann - who is also training for a September 5th WEC bout where he will put his unbeaten 4-0 record on the line against 10-1 Jeremiah Billington - helps train anywhere from 650 to 900 Marines and sailors, getting them ready for their deployment to Iraq. By his estimation, in six or seven months he will then begin his own training cycle to go back. To civilians, the thought of going to Iraq once would be harrowing enough; twice, unfathomable. A third time, while leaving a wife and family behind? There are no words, but to Stann, he sees the opportunity to serve his country as a privilege, not a chore.

“I pushed to get to Iraq the soonest when I was done with all my training,” said Stann, who graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 2003. “That’s where I wanted to be. A lot of people, when they ask me if I’ve been to Iraq, they say, ‘oh, I’m sorry to hear that.’ I don’t know why they say that. I usually tell them, ‘no, I wanted to go.’ It was my choice and I wanted to go both times I went to Iraq. It’s the same thing with fighting. On the days when I fight, there’s nothing more that I want to be doing than getting in that cage and testing my skills against the man across from me. So I have not had any regrets in that department and I haven’t found myself in any situations where I’m holding my head and wishing I wasn’t there – absolutely not.”

It’s a different look at the war in Iraq than what many see on the evening news, and getting that part of the story out has prompted the normally camera-shy Stann to take on a more active role in letting people know the other side of matters. That was a tough task for someone who doesn’t fit into the ‘me first’ world of pro athletes.

“When the WEC first approached me about doing a lot of interviews and things like that, I told them that I really don’t want to do them, that I don’t enjoy doing them,” he admits. “I really don’t care for personal recognition.”

But when it comes to spreading the ink around to his fellow members of the armed forces, he doesn’t hesitate.

“There are some very, very talented men and women out there right now fighting this war that absolutely want to be there,” he said. “They really feel an obligation to go fight for and defend their country, and they see it in that manner. And there are a lot of positives over there in Iraq that just don’t make for good news headlines. The media just sees death, war, and destruction and those things going on and that’s what sells and that’s what they’re going to put in the papers and on the news. A story about Marines or the Army building a school and this or that area doing so well won’t get put on the news because not a lot of people will tune into that.”

True, but Stann hopes to change things like that in his role as one of the most visible light heavyweights in the WEC. Unfortunately though, in the what have you done for me lately world of sports, he has to keep winning to keep the media interested, and luckily, he’s got that under control, with all four of his pro fights ending in the first round (the shortest being 16 seconds and the longest coming in his last fight, on June 3rd, as he blasted out Craig Zellner at 4:57 of the opening stanza). And while he knows he’s still a work in progress, some workouts with the likes of the Xtreme Couture team and Dan Henderson’s Team Quest have helped immensely in his progression as a fighter.

“It’s been tough, and I love the challenge,” said Stann. “The WEC affords me the opportunity to fight some great up and coming fighters, but I’ve been fortunate enough where I haven’t taken any time off since I got back from Iraq. The only vacation time I’ve taken is to either fly into Las Vegas to train with Xtreme Couture or fly to Temecula, California to train with Team Quest. Getting with those kinds of camps and being around those kind of people, I think you can’t help but get better a lot faster when you’re training with men of that caliber. But people would be surprised at what kind of fighters and athletes are in the Marine Corps that just haven’t had the opportunity to showcase their skills, so I’ve got a lot of guys back here in Camp Lejeune that help me out every day.”

When talking to Stann, it’s hard to believe that he’s just 26 years old, given his maturity and outlook on life. But he didn’t fall out of the sky this way, and he admits that he owes a lot not only to his military training and his time on the football field as a linebacker for the Naval Academy, but to his mother Elizabeth Cieless, who raised Stann and his older sister as a single parent after his father left when Brian was just two.

“I think a lot of it (maturity) stems from my family and growing up the way I did,” Stann recalls. “I grew up as the man of the house at a young age, and my mom raised me tough. She’s one of those women that’s real soft and always smiling and easy going, but when it came to me, she was tough, and if I tried to complain or say that I didn’t like doing something, it was never something that she would accept. And she put me in a position through sports and school where I had the opportunity to step up and lead. Then obviously, when I was at the Naval Academy and being around those guys and going through the situations we went through during 9/11 and dealing with the leadership training and the athletic career, I think that really spawned a lot of maturity on me and all my friends, and I think it really breeds a caliber of guy that you can count on. I couldn’t think of any of my best friends right now that I couldn’t count on for anything. They’re absolutely the kind of guys you would want on your left and right if you’re going into battle.”

And from May 8 to May 14, 2005, at a bridge near Karabilah, Iraq, Stann’s maturity and leadership skills were tested when his Third Battalion, Second Marine Division was ambushed while trying to take the bridge. Stann and his Marines fought off grenades, suicide attacks, explosive devices, and machine guns for six days. It was a trial by fire of the deadliest sort.

“It’s a lot of responsibility because as an officer when you’re in those situations, you’re the one making the decisions, and every single decision you make has lives depending on it,” said Stann when asked his state of mind during the battle. “It’s not like a sport where if you have an off day you lose a fight, or if you make a tactical mistake you just get caught with a good punch or kick. In that environment, if you make one off call, that could be the lives of three or four young men. That’s the kind of pressure you’re under, but really getting nervous, getting real worked up or getting afraid is something you really can’t afford to do, because that’s what makes you make those poor decisions. In my role, I always feel that there’s gonna be friction, and there’s gonna be that fog of war that comes about during the fight, and I’m the one who has to push to that friction point. If I’ve got guys pinned down in this area, I need to move that area immediately, and when I get there, my demeanor and my courage will then make my guys have that sigh of relief like ‘everything’s gonna be okay, he’s here now.’ And I have to be the one to give them that guidance and that direction to say ‘hey, we’re gonna push to the left and we’ll go ahead and envelop the enemy this way.’ And these Marines are amazing, and once they get that little bit of direction and they see their leader standing tall and leading from the front, they’re gonna fight harder than anything you’ve ever seen. It’s a lot of responsibility, and casualties are a part of war – nobody’s gonna pitch a shutout – so those are things you have to deal with for the rest of your life, and just make sure that you continue to make the best possible decisions you can make. Make sure you’re preparing yourself mentally and scholarship-wise to keep up with the enemy’s tactics and procedures so that you can make the best calls when you’re out there on the battlefield.”

When the battle near Karabilah had ended, there were some casualties, but the 42 Marines who entered combat that week all came back alive, and 1st Lieutenant Brian Stann earned a Silver Star for extraordinary heroism.

It makes you think that after surviving a harrowing situation like that while leading a group of Marines under fire in defense of your country, stepping into a cage to fight in a sanctioned sporting event isn’t that difficult anymore. But while Stann admits that he may not have the pre-fight nerves most fighters have, it doesn’t make him cocky and careless.

“It’s very easy for me not to get overconfident,” he admits. “In combat, I’m a professional warrior, that’s my job, that’s my craft. So as far as infantry skills, strategy, and tactics, I’ve been doing that for years and I’m great at it. When it comes to fighting, I’m still relatively new. I’ve only had four fights, and most of the guys who I fight, especially these last two, have been fighting a lot longer and have been training a lot longer than me, so I’m actually known by my training partners to overestimate my opponents. I tend to do that and I give them all a lot of respect because it’s not like I’m going to be handed anybody easy. The last two fighters I faced were great fighters, so due to the fact that I’m still relatively new to the sport and there’s still a lot for me to learn, I’m never overconfident going into a fight whatsoever. I just think as far as handling the nerves and still being able to go out there and execute my gameplan and not get caught up with the adrenaline, I think it makes it a lot easier for me to go out there and do those things.”

And while he’s softened his stance a bit since an MTV interview about the same subject earlier this year, he still bristles when he hears some athletes referred to as warriors.

“If you look at the prefix of the word, its war, and that’s what it means to me,” he explains. “It’s those who have participated in combat such as war, not so much a combat sport. It’s not that I think fighters are trying to put themselves in that category; I think our society throws that word around. You’ll hear football players and baseball players being called warriors and things of that nature, so it just has a different meaning to me. It’s a lot different being shot at than having punches thrown at you.”

What Stann will admit though is that as far as sports go, the only athletic endeavor to truly push him these days and help him keep sharp mentally and physically for his military duties and the possibility of real-world combat is mixed martial arts.

“There’s no training environment that can absolutely simulate combat, but there are things you can do to prepare yourself for it,” Stann explains. “One is just how you live your daily life. The guys that I’ve seen perform the best in combat are a lot of times the guys who have the most character and the strongest character in their civilian lives as well. I think pushing yourself mentally and physically on a daily basis to keep yourself sharp is good preparation, and for me, that’s kind of how I found mixed martial arts. I found a sport that will absolutely push you to your physical limits, it puts you in a situation where you have to be physically and mentally prepared, and able to put out the noise from the crowd and forget about the hype and whatever pressure you have to win that fight and go out there and execute your gameplan, and take out a kinetic opponent. And though it’s a lot less complicated than war, it’s still a good thing to do – and it’s the reason why I started doing it – to prepare you to lead men and women in combat.”

By his example and resume thus far, Brian Stann has proved himself to be a leader and a credit to the Marines and the sport of mixed martial arts. But having not even reached the age of 30 yet, there’s still so much ahead for the man known as “All-American”, and as always, Stann’s perfect future involves family, fighting, and serving the United States.

“For me, the future hopefully holds being the WEC light heavyweight champion, leading Marines, and obviously being a great husband and father as well,” he said. “But ultimately, whether its service in the Marine Corps or doing charity work spawned from my fighting career, I want to serve America in some capacity.”