Loomis Alexander

Loomis Alexander from Greybull/Riverside is our next Featured Wrestler!  What a thoughtful young man and a heck of a wrestler.  Good luck this season and thank you for taking time to do the interview Loomis.

-Favorite thing about wrestling?
What the grind of the sport has done for my mentality. Without the sport I know I would be a completely different person. It’s put a sense of work ethic into me that I think is hard to find elsewhere because it’s very demanding both physically and mentally. 

-Favorite past wrestler/coach?
Favorite past coach: I have two, one is my dad for all he’s done to get me to where I am, taking me across the country for ten minutes of mat time. Making me double bracket in pretty much every tournament I wrestled in as a youth wrestler. The other is AJ Carter, he’s on the coaching staff at the Purler wrestling facility in Missouri. He’s still a current coach of mine and he alone has completely changed the way I view the sport now. Because of him I haven’t walked into the practice room, or into a match and not been in a good mood/ mindset in about two years.

-Goal for wrestling, life, and career?
Goal for wrestling, life, and career: for wrestling I wish to pursue college wrestling, and like every committed and motivated wrestler would say, go win a national title. For high school the goal is Ron Thon, then to go do great at Virginia Beach. I wish to pursue a career in Mechanical Engineering and own my own business designing a product that will increase efficiency for tradesman, farm/ranchers, and the oil industry. For life I’m undecided on the path a wish to pursue. Family is the most important part of my life so the goal is to benefit the future generations as much as possible, because that’s been the goal of every important man in my family for four generations.

-If you could teach a younger wrestler one thing, what would it be?
One thing for a younger wrestler: wrestle through positions. What I mean is even when someone is deep on a shot in practice, don’t fall backwards and belly out, try to sprawl, push their head out, tight waist, look for ankles. Just don’t give up points, even if you know you’re probably about to be taken down. I think it just comes down to grit, tell yourself that you’re going to make them fight tooth and nail for every advantage.

-You took a huge step up the state podium last year. Tell us about what led to that and your preparation for last year and this season as well.
My big jump: Its just reps. I doubt anyone has gotten the same amount of reps I have in the state of Wyoming in the past two years. My sophomore summer I signed up for a 28 day wrestling camp in Missouri, and did the minimum which was about 6 hours of wrestling a day, 4 drilling, 1-2 live.
This summer I went back for another 28 and mentally I was very prepared for the grind. I wrestled as much as possible, but had some trouble with my knee about the 24th day so I did miss a little bit. Also me and Will Wood did a lot of wrestling, mostly live towards the end of the preseason. 

-Greybull/Riverside always has a tough team and last year was no exception with a top 5 finish. Can you talk about the program that Coach Sanford and his staff have built and what it means to be a part of it?
The biggest factor that makes us tough is our condition. Rob Nuttal, our previous head coach, and Mark Sanford both preach that we win in the third period, which is awesome to me, I appreciate that they require of us a high pace more than anything else. I’m very appreciative to learn the sport under Mark’s, and Rob’s wing.

-Anything else that you would like to add or touch on?
I’d like to give a shout out to Reece Whisinant. He graduated, and is a Marine now, but he pushed me harder in the practice room than anyone I’ve ever wrestled with.

GPA: 3.218

Career Record: 119-19

Coach: Head coach for freshman-junior year: Robert Nuttal. Senior year: Mark Sanford