Tuesday Q&A: Tossin 10 at Jason Moorman, King Univ. head women’s and men’s coach

Photo of Jason Moorman courtesy of King University


Each Tuesday, TheMat.com will be tossing 10 questions at a college wrestling coach. We visited with King head coach Jason Moorman this week. Moorman’s King’s women’s team has won two straight WCWA Women’s College National team titles, and will be going for a three-peat this year. His program has been very successful in USA Wrestling’s programs in recent years. He also took responsibility for coaching King’s Div. II men’s team in recent seasons.

Question 1: Going into WCWA Nationals, what will be the key to King being able to defend its national team title and win a third WCWA title in a row?
Moorman: We have to perform individually. I’ll be honest. We are allowing some of our girls to go whatever weight that they want to, in order to achieve the goals which they have set, where they feel that they can be the most competitive. We won’t have somebody in every single weight. We will have multiple people in certain weights. Still, if everybody can perform, we will give it a good shot.

Question 2: What impact did Alli Ragan have on the King wrestling program, and what in your mind was the key to her success in college and internationally?
Moorman: If there is one person who set the tone for what our program represents, that would be Alli. Not only did she have success as a college national runner-up for her first two years, but she was our first Junior World bronze medalist, and actually won two of those. She was the first King wrestler to be on a Senior World Team, the first King wrestler to win a University medal. A lot of firsts that Alli did. She is going to go down as one of the people who really set this program off.

Question 3: Your women have been very active in USA Wrestling’s programs on the UWW Junior, University and Senior level. How important is the spring and summer wrestling to success on the college level?
Moorman: It is crucial. I look at it as both supplementing each other. The college season really helps a lot of the young girls to become competitive when we get to the spring and summer wrestling. Also, competing at the Senior level, and getting those experiences like competing on the Junior World Teams and Junior Pan Am Teams, University World Teams, the experience they get from that enriches their wrestling, and we get to see that benefit during the next college season. It’s crucial.


Question 4: Haley Augello is on an Olympic redshirt year and training in Colorado Springs. What is her strength as a wrestler, and how are her chances at making the Olympic Team this year?

Moorman: I think her chances are really good, especially if she goes the weight she is talking about. She is so diverse as a wrestler and has so many skills. She is a great counter, defensive wrestler. She has some very explosive offense on her feet. She can turn you on top. She is a hard worker in the weight room. She is a mat rat, always looking to learn. Hopefully she is going to achieve her goal this year.


Question 5: When King started a women’s program, you stepped up to that challenge. Why did you decide to coach women’s wrestling, and what are some of the skills you have needed to succeed with that.

Moorman: To be honest,we started a women’s program, after we had seen a few others. We looked at the University of the Cumberlands, and they had a roster of like 50 athletes, maybe even more. Coaches don’t get paid very good, especially at the smaller school level. We looked at it as a way to supplement our income. We’d start a new team, and try to bring in some wrestlers and maybe we would get paid a little bit more for what we were doing. I knew nothing about women’s wrestling at all and I did take that title as the head coach. Our first year, it showed, because we were like 1-9. That year changed my whole outlook and philosophy on women’s wrestling. I got to see that there is no difference if a whether a man is willing to achieve his goals in this sport or a woman. I bought in right away, and I was able to do what I needed to do to be successful. I did have to learn about the different type of mental side of coaching women verses men. I did some research on sports psychology and talked to some other coaches who may have coached male sports and went on to coach women, some of the things they learned. And I am still learning every day.


Question 6: You have been given the chance to coach the men’s team as well at King. How has that change affected you and can you update us on how the men’s program has been doing there?

Moorman: It’s a challenge. I knew it was going to be when I took it over. I had some changes with assistant coaches and things like that. We are rebuilding our program. If women’s wrestling becomes a sport in the NCAA, we may really look at this type of model, with one person overseeing the men and the women, and also having assistant coaches for each. We are rebuilding, but we do have our 141-pounder Bryce Killian actually ranked third in the country right now. It is our highest ranking a wrestler has had at King since we have moved to the NCAA. We show a lot of promise, and hopefully we can get one or two All-Americans or even more this year and just get the ball rolling.


Question 7: One of your top-ranked athletes going into WCWA Nationals is a freshman, Hanna Jewell at 136. What can you tell us about her, and why she has had such a great start to her college career?

Moorman: I absolutely love Hannah. Her work ethic, she’s just a hardnosed, gritty, hard-working wrestler. She hates losing, always wants to get better every single day. She has some big goals. She wrestles with a chip on her shoulder because she wants to achieve them. She has been fortunate to be in the mix with Jessi Kee, Forrest Molinari and Amanda Hendey is here training still. It is a pretty good group to work with every day. It has helped her develop pretty quickly.


Question 8: King is an NCAA Div. II program. You have been active in the effort to secure emerging sport status for women’s wrestling from the NCAA. If and when this happens, what will that mean to the future of college women’s wrestling?

Moorman: We are already seeing a whole bunch of programs starting up. I think we will see a whole lot more NCAA schools that are going to start these programs. The real challenge is where we are going to put a lot of effort is in the grassroots level and getting those numbers larger and larger in the numbers of girls involved. We do have a recruiting pool, and as more programs are started, that recruiting pool gets tougher and tougher to pull from. I think we are going to really need to see a huge, huge effort on growing that grassroots level. Once it becomes an NCAA sport, I think we are going to see it all over the place.


Question 9: Which athlete in the King’s women’s lineup has shown the most improvement this year, and how will she be a factor in the team race this weekend?

Moorman: Looking from last year to this year, one person is Breonnah Neal. She beat Cody Pfau at National Duals. She has really bought in more this year than last year, which was a little bit of a transition because she was a transfer. Cody Pfau is the only person she has lost to on the college level this year, and she beat Cody the last time they wrestled, which helped us secure the National Duals title. Forrest Molinari has come a long way as well. I could say something about every single one of them. Ashley Illif is going down to 101 pounds and she has beaten Marina Doi in a tournament. She will go into the tournament as the No. 1 seed probably. I feel every one of our girls have gotten better. We will see.


Question 10: What would it mean to King University if one of your women wrestlers made the U.S. Olympic Team this year?

Moorman: When we met with the president to start women’s wrestling, one of the selling points was that I basically told them to imagine a King wrestler or alum competing at the Olympics. He said, “I love it.” This year, I think we have a really good shot at that happening. It is hard to explain how much that it will mean to our program. I have already talked to our Athletic Director. I want to be in Rio if this happens. If there is two, you better promise me right now. He said that if two make it, we will send you down there. It is what we strive for here. We want to make World Teams and that’s the ultimate dream and goal. We don’t want to sell ourselves short. We work hard to achieve it. Even if they move on and graduate, they take that pride and work ethic, as they work to achieve that goal.


Past Tossin’ 10 interviews
January 26 – Buffalo head coach John Stutzman 
January 19 – Iowa head coach Tom Brands 
January 12 – Iowa State head coach Kevin Jackson 
December 22 – Arizona State head coach Zeke Jones 
December 15 – Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale 
December 8 – Nebraska head coach Mark Manning 
December 1 – Drexel head coach Matt Azevedo 
November 24 – Oklahoma head coach Mark Cody 
November 17 – Oklahoma City’s head men’s & women’s coach Archie Randall 
November 10 - Stanford head coach Jason Borrelli
November 3 - Pennsylvania head coach Alex Tirapelle 
October 27- South Dakota State head coach Chris Bono