JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Roger Moore worked in wrestling hub of Stillwater
Is Stillwater, Okla., the center of amateur wrestling in the United States?
“By far,” remarked Roger Moore, who quickly refers to the story of Steve Mocco, the former NCAA champion from Iowa, who chose to transfer to rival Oklahoma State where he gained another college title and was within a match of making the 2005 U.S. world team.
“(Mocco) won’t say directly but the fact of the matter is that Iowa was in a down slide and he sensed that. He was sitting back watching the (OSU) machine get going and thinking I want to be part of that. He wants to train for the Olympics and if you look at the Olympics last summer, it was like an OSU dual with three of the (seven) guys being from one school.
“Oklahoma State is winning NCAA championships, the Hall of Fame is here and apparently the (2006 World Team) Trials are going to be here next year.”
Mo
ore can barely catch his breath as he lists all the national success that has come from this community in Oklahoma.And Moore, the sports editor of the Stillwater NewsPress, has been there to chronicle all the events that led to Oklahoma State winning the last three NCAA championships and four former Cowboys — Eric Guerrero, Jamill Kelly, Mo Lawal and Daniel Cormier — representing the United States at either the World Championships or Olympics the past three years.
“I could write about wrestling every day of the week,” said Moore, who also covers several top prep wrestling programs.
“I’m so lucky. I have five high schools that I cover and in the top class Stillwater finished second in the state last year. Perry High School has also won 32 high school championships, more than any other high school in any sport in the country. Perry is also the hometown of Danny Hodge.”
And Moore’s interest in wrestling was another reason that the native of Stillwater, was chosen as Wrestling International Newsmagazine’s Journalist of the Year.
“Roger is a very worthy recipient of this award. The thing I appreciate most about Roger is that his enthusiasm and love for the sport carries over into his stories. It gets other people excited,” W.I.N. Publisher Bryan Van Kley said. “We need more journalists like him in wrestling.”
Covering just wrestling is impossible for Moore and this three-person staff who are also responsible for covering all the nationally-ranked sports team at OSU.
Yet, Moore has made wrestling part of Stillwater’s reading menu at a time when Oklahoma State is producing plenty of other national success: the football team has played in three straight bowl games; the men’s basketball team has competed in every NCAA tournament since 1998 and reached the Final Four in 2004.
Moore’s interest in wrestling stems from an average high school wrestling career. He actually became a college basketball fan before regaining his love for wrestling shortly before he returned to college in the mid-1990s after a stint in the army.
“I remember picking up a school paper and noticed that they had no one covering wrestling so I volunteered to do that for one semester,” said Moore, who eventually graduated in 1997 and left the daily newspaper business. Within a few years, the NewsPress was looking for a sports editor and hired Moore, whose first day was Jan. 1, 1999.
This was also during the midst of a decade-long draught in Oklahoma State wrestling in which the Cowboys failed to win the NCAA championship; a standard still observed by critical OSU fans.
“You wouldn’t believe what the fans are like here,” Moore said. “They are so fickle around here. It’s like Iowa. It’s first or it’s nothing.”
And beginning in March 2003, when the Cowboys captured a NCAA-record 31st NCAA championship, Oklahoma State has regained its place in the national spotlight by adding two more titles the past two seasons.
Moore credits the maturation of OSU head coach John Smith for the Cowboys’ recent success.
“You could tell that John was learning,” Moore said, recalling the fact that Smith was one year removed from winning a sixth world/Olympic gold medal when he took over an NCAA probation-scarred program. “He was such a young coach. He would be like, ‘Why can’t we win? I’m a world champion. Why can’t you be like me?’
“He slowly but surely learned how to coach and now it’s a scary, scary thing.”
Moore also said that Smith was recruiting a different breed of wrestlers, who Moore used to see out enjoying the social life in this college town.
“I don’t know these guys as well outside of the wrestling room,” said Moore. “I don’t see them out. They are not out on the town. They are off training for the Trials, wrestling in the University Nationals. The old guys did not do that as much.
“That’s the difference.”
And for every NCAA champion (8) and All-American (21) produced by Oklahoma State the past three years, Moore said his favorite stories have been about the wrestlers who overcame regular-season failures to succeed in the post-season.
“Kevin Ward won at the Big 12 tournament,” recalled Moore, who said he was predicting that OSU’s 157-pounder may be the only Cowboy not to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament. “He goes (to the conference tournament in Omaha, Neb.) and beats (Iowa State’s Trent) Paulson and becomes the dominant story.
Moore also enjoys seeing Oklahoma prep wrestlers go on to do well in college.
“I’ve known (2005 NCAA champ) Johny Hendricks since he was a sophomore in high school (in Edmond, Okla.). He was a bulldog who sometimes had a hard time wrestling,” said Moore of the 165-pound national champ, who defeated another Stillwater native — Iowa’s Mark Perry — in the NCAA championship match.
“Anytime Iowa would have a big dual, like when they lost to Northwestern last year, I would point out what Mark Perry did,” Moore said. “I kept track of what Perry did all year.
“After the season was over, (OSU assistant coach) Pat Smith asked me, ‘Why did you promote Mark Perry so much? The team hates that. They don’t understand why you do that.’
“I told Pat, ‘He’s from Stillwater and he’s at Iowa. He’s a huge story.’ ”
And with the success OSU has had recently, there doesn’t look to be a shortage of huge stories for Moore to pick from in the future, either.
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