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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Teague Moore

On Stands Now: Teague Moore coaches wrestlers in sport and in life

Sixteen years ago, Teague Moore stood on the wrestling mat at Cleveland State University with his Oklahoma State University singlet drenched in sweat and his arms raised above his head in celebration. After seven minutes of twisting his 118 pound body into the correct positions and pinning down David Morgan from Michigan State, Moore was an NCAA Champion.

Today, he bears another distinction as head wrestling coach at American University, where he is trying to lead his athletes to the top of the podium at the NCAA Championships.

In 2012, Moore coached graduates Ryan Flores and Ganbayar Sanjaa to NCAA All-American status, and last year, the wrestling team sent three student-athletes to the national tournament. With 11 freshmen on this year’s roster, Moore looks to have even more success in the 2014-2015 season.

A self-described “selfish” but focused wrestler, Moore approached every practice with a determined mindset. He has spent the last four years at AU building a program with a culture that matches his philosophy of commitment to excellence.

“I absolutely love coaching at a place like AU,” Moore said.

Moore trains his athletes year-long, and they spend their pre-season enduring grueling practices on the track. During the school year, the wrestlers wake up before dawn to prepare for their morning lifts, and they return to the gym each afternoon for strenuous workouts that simulate a meet environment.

“It’s definitely a mindset of competing,” junior Esteban Gomez-Rivera said. “Everything we do is a challenge for us, whether it’s in academics or on the mat, in practice, weightlifting, living in general. You’re always trying to compete find that niche to be the best you can be.”

Moore’s coaching career began just months after his graduation from Oklahoma State University when he took an assistant coaching position at University of Pittsburgh. He then moved to Harvard University in 2004, and his coaching philosophy took a turn.

“My experience at Harvard was really eye-opening to me because that was the first time that I had ever been in an environment where guys wanted to be national champions, and at the same time they wanted to develop themselves academically and professionally for when they got done with wrestling,” Moore said.

He heavily stresses the necessity of academics to his athletes and holds them to high standards. Any athlete who fails to maintain a 3.25 GPA must attend mandatory study hall sessions eight hours a week.

“We saw individuals that just needed to be in the right environment, and I really felt like at AU wrestling, we built a very good environment for our individual athletes to develop within.”
— Teague Moore, AU Wrestling Coach

During Moore’s tenure, AU has placed six wrestlers on the NWCA Division I All-Academic Team, a distinction that recognizes student-athletes who won over half of their matches during the year and earned a 3.2 GPA or earned All-American status and earned a 3.0 GPA. Danny Mitchell, who graduated in 2014, finished his wrestling career at AU as a three-time All-Academic team honoree with 3.90 cumulative GPA, and Moore said he expects all of his athletes to strive to follow Mitchell’s example of success in the classroom. The team ended the 2014 season ranked ninth in the country for academic performance with a 3.21 team GPA.

“The AU wrestling culture is about doing the best you can at everything you do," Gomez-Rivera said. We have high academic and athletic goals.".

Not all recruits match Moore’s standards, but he is focused on bringing in individuals who he can “nurture in the right environment." This is the first year where he has personally recruited all of the athletes on his team.

“We saw individuals that just needed to be in the right environment, and I really felt like at AU wrestling, we built a very good environment for our individual athletes to develop within,” Moore said. “I feel that the effort and the work ethic and the attitude with the guys that we have in our room, we’ve got a huge potential in front of us right now.”

He has been able to draw student-athletes to the school by promoting the academic advantages offered at AU, but he also emphasizes that his program requires a special kind of commitment.

“I think it takes a unique individual to want to be part of a program like this,” Moore said.

In addition to balancing excruciating workouts and intense academics, the AU wrestling team also follows a zero-tolerance drinking policy, and even athletes of age may not consume alcohol while they are attending the University.

AU’s unique atmosphere appealed to junior wrestler John Boyle when he was considering which school to attend.

“On my recruiting trip, I went over to a guy who graduated, Danny Mitchell’s house, and he was helping people with their homework,” Boyle said. “It was a different environment, and just seeing that opened my eyes, and this is exactly where I want to be.”

He believes that every individual in his program has the potential to become an NCAA champion.

“Every guy that walks in here, [into the] practice room, has to feel like they’re part of something, otherwise they’re not going to give you their best effort in practice,” Moore said.

sscovel@theeagleonline.com


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