VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Wrestling through grief: Syracuse mother finds new purpose on the mat
Heather Niver: I was never the best, but I loved it. I always gave it like a 110%.
Kyra Ceryanek: Some people find healing in a therapist’s office. For Heather Niver, this is therapy. It was so ingrained in her that, as a kid, she laid down in bed pretending to shoot the ball – tossing it above her head, up and down.
Heather Niver: When I got pregnant with the triplets and then I was like, oh, well, I’m gonna have them dribbling before they can crawl. And they really did. Like they were out there, performing at the dome when they were like, when little dribblers, maybe three years old, four years old.
Ceryanek: The game plan was for the whole family to play basketball, and Niver’s girls did. But her only boy, Brady, decided to switch things up.
Niver: It became freshman year and he said, mom, I gotta talk to you. And I was like, oh boy, what’s going on? And he said, I think I’m going to wrestle. And I was like, oh, my heart. Like, no, why would you do this to me?…Like, we’ve done everything in basketball for so long.
Ceryanek: So Niver jumped in to support her son as he stepped onto the wrestling mat. But she held on to the sport she and her kids grew up on. Heather always found peace right here on the court. So when her son Brady passed away two years ago in a car accident, she found herself coming back to the place where she had always found some sort of relief. But in fact, the place where she’d feel the most connected to her son was someplace else entirely different. As a new school year started, she was surrounding herself with memories of Brady. While she stared at his medals and his trophies, the city needed a coach for its new all-girls wrestling team.
Niver: People started coming to me saying no, like I really think that the way you interact with the girls in the city, like you can really build something here.
Ceryanek: She was a career counselor in the school district. She’d never wrestled, and she’d certainly never coached. But Brady wrestled.
Niver: And I literally felt him say, you can do this, mom. If I see you standing up, I’m going to knock you over.
Ceryanek: She didn’t want to just teach the girls wrestling. She wanted them to learn how to get back up after life pins them down.
Niver: And someone had said to me that those girls will break your heart. And I thought to myself, oh, my heart is broken, so maybe they can help heal.
Ceryanek: So she told them about her son and the movement she created to keep his memory alive.
Briella Coreless: Brady Strong: Be kind, be strong, be determined. And that’s kind of what inspires me, especially during this wrestling season since I’ve gotten to know more about it.
Ceryanek: A piece of Brady is always with her. Those shoes: they were Brady’s.
Me’Shaya Ross: I really felt for her because, like, I lost a parent. But like, yeah, I just feel like we instantly connected and I feel like we are meant for each other.
Cereyanek: Nothing about this was going to be easy. She never even stepped on a mat before this season, and none of her girls had either. But Niver knew this was really more than just about wrestling. And the girls did, too.
Ross: And I feel like I love how she helps. Like she helps me through everything. Like any problem that I have, I can come to her about it and she’s going to tell me the honest truth whether I’m right or if I’m wrong.
Ceryanek: But Niver goes the extra mile for these girls. In one case, an extra 150 miles. There they were, together, at the state championship. In their first season…Brady Strong.
Niver: In these moments right now, today, I feel like he was just so proud. I feel like he is shining down. I felt like he was with me all day today. When I’m around wrestling in the sport of wrestling, in wrestlers, in a mat, in a gym, at a tournament and a match, I just feel so connected to Brady.
Ceryanek: The best and worst things of life usually arrive as a surprise. And this mother’s love was the fuel to embrace the impossible. Kyra Ceryanek, NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — When Heather Niver lost her teenage son, Brady, in a car accident two years ago, she didn’t know how she would move forward.
She found herself returning to a familiar place — the basketball court — a space that had been a big part of both her own childhood and her kids’ upbringing. It was her sport, and she passed that passion on to her children early.
“When I got pregnant with the triplets, I thought, I’ll have them dribbling before they can crawl,” she said. “They really did. They were performing at the dome by the time they were three or four.”
Her daughters stayed with basketball, but Brady eventually wanted something different.
“It became freshman year, and he said, ‘Mom, I gotta talk to you,’” Niver said. “And I was like, ‘Oh boy, what’s going on?’ He said, ‘I think I’m going to wrestle.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my heart. Like, no, why would you do this to me? … We’ve done everything in basketball for so long.’”
Niver supported the move, watching him step onto the mat and helping however she could, just like she had with basketball.
Then, after Brady’s death, she leaned on both the early memories with basketball, as well as memories of the sport he grew to love.
Shortly after the accident, the Syracuse City School District was forming its first-ever girls wrestling team. They needed a coach.
Niver was working in the schools as a career counselor. She didn’t have experience in wrestling, but many around her kept encouraging her to take on the role.
“People started coming to me saying I really think that (with) the way you interact with the girls in the city, you can really build something here,” Niver said.
At first, she wasn’t sure–she wanted the girls to have the best coach they could. Niver had no previous experience on the wrestling mat besides watching her son wrestle.
But, shortly after she felt something shift.
“I literally felt him say, you can do this, mom…” Niver said.
Coaching the girls wasn’t just about wrestling for Niver — it was about building confidence and creating a support system. She told the team about Brady and shared the message she created to keep his memory alive: Brady Strong. Be kind. Be strong. Be determined.
The message stuck.
“It inspires me,” said senior Briella Coreless. “Especially during wrestling season, since I’ve gotten to know more about it.”
For many of the girls, their trust in Niver grew. Me’Shaya Ross, a student-athlete on the team, said she immediately felt like she and Niver had something in common.
“I really felt for her because I lost a parent,” said Ross. “I just feel like we instantly connected and I feel like we are meant for each other.”
Neither Niver nor her athletes had stepped on a wrestling mat before this season. But that didn’t stop them from learning and growing as a team — and even competing at a high level.
“She helps me through everything,” said Ross. “Any problem that I have, I can come to her about it and she’s going to tell me the honest truth whether I’m right or if I’m wrong.”
The season pushed everyone out of their comfort zone. At one point, Niver drove more than 150 miles to bring a wrestler to the state championships. It was just their first season.
In the peak of her first season with the girls, she felt a strong connection with her son.
“In these moments right now, today, I feel like he was just so proud,” Niver said. “I feel like he is shining down. I felt like he was with me all day today. I felt like he would be proud of how I coached her. I think he’d be proud of how she handled the losses, and I think he’d be proud that this girl’s varsity freestyle wrestling has taken off the way that it has.”