Westmoore's Rock

You know it's always a goal to win a state title. But we do the best we can with them. I feel like we've done a good job. This is a great job. I still enjoy it. Hopefully, I have a few more years Kids have changed a little bit from when I started. But I do feel like I'm the same person I was when I started at Westmoore. I approach the kids the same way. I haven't seen 130 pounds in awhile. I was a state runner-up in 1984 at 130 pounds. I went to Chickasha graduated in 1984 and coach John Finn was my high school coach. I went to UCO. I wrestled three years and like a lot of kids didn't pay attention to my grades. I got out of school and poured concrete for a year. I saw that was no good, and went back to school a year later and did much better. I knew I would be a coach. From pretty much early on, and I don't know if it was from the lack of being able to do anything else, but I knew it was always something I wanted to do. I have an older brother who wrestled and a sister who played softball. My dad wrestled at Geary and at OU. Wrestling was meant to be for me. We had a wrestling family and my parents went to everything I ever did. I don't know if football or wrestling is better. Wrestlers and football players complement each other quite a bit. I encourage our kids to do both. They are both physical and aggressive sports. In the time I've been here, Wes Roberts was the best I've been around. He worked hard. Had the ability, too. It wasn't any secrets about how good he was and that's why he was a three-time state champ. You spend a lot of hours in the wrestling room. Others comment on how it smells in there or how it looks, but I never notice anything about it. Seems natural, I guess. I like to travel. I've been to India with Wes Roberts in the Cadet World Championships and that was pretty fun place. I've been to Japan twice through wrestling, too. Wrestling has opened lots of doors for me. It's been good to me. I point out to the kids that wrestling has taken me a lot of places. I'm single. Never been married. I do have three dogs and they are very active. That's enough for me right now. Kids aren't as patient as they used to be. With the computer age and cell phones, there's a sense of instant gratification. It has to be right now. I don't know if that's from an over-stimulated world, but kids aren't as active physically as they once were. Early on, the kids like to play the games, now it's a struggle to get them to do it. Wrestling is very humbling. You start out struggling, and if you do it long enough and are successful, , you'll eventually find someone else that's as tough as you are. It's a very technical activity. That's why it's so hard. You think of all the positions to be in and knowing how to react in those situations. That's why it's so hard for beginners. You can take a great athlete and put him against an average one who knows how to wrestle and he can make the other guy look bad or silly. Wrestling takes a special kid. That's intimidating. They are the only one out there and everyone is watching.