Wrestler eyeing comeback after shooting self in leg

Polson football player and wrestler Cameron Brown shot himself in a hunting accident he had over the weekend.

Brown shot himself with a .22, which according to him “didn’t have a strap going over the holster” to keep the gun from “flying out.” When he reached for the door of his truck, the gun slipped out of his hand shooting him in the calf and thigh.

“When I first looked at the wound, I was upset and thinking to myself ‘now I won’t be able to go hunting and wrestling,” Brown, who placed third in his weight class, said after initially getting shot. “One of my buddies drove me to the hospital, and all of my wrestling buddies and family where there when I arrived.”

Brown said, according to the doctors, the bullet wound missed everything including blood vessels and tendons. Brown said the bullet “just hit his muscles.”

“I am really fortunate because that injury could have went 100 different ways,” Brown said.

Brown said he is doing “a lot of physical therapy” in an attempt to come back before Christmas.

“I am hoping to be able to come back before Christmas.” Brown said. “Hopefully I’ll be on the mat in the tournaments after Christmas. Once I start getting on the mat, I will be 100 miles an hour again.”

Brown said he felt he “hurt his team” by this accident.

“Oh yeah, I think I hurt the team a little bit,” Brown said. “I am just glad for all of my friends and family supporting me to help me get my mind off the injury sometimes.”

Pirates Coach Bob Owen is “optimistic” about Brown’s return and said he hopes to have him before New Year and expects his recovery to be expeditious.

“He’s very very fortunate,” Owen said of the accident.