Coach Ryan Anderson Moapa Valley High School
Pictures and Content courtesy of Ryan Anderson
My dad introduced me to wrestling when I was in 6th grade living in Durango, CO. Dad wrestled for Central High School in Grand Junction, CO. I fell in love with the sport immediately and seemed to have an aptitude for it.
In 1988 we moved to Moapa Valley where I started wrestling with the youth program and attending high school practices. I started wrestling for Coach Marty Taggart in 1990. He was my coach throughout high school. Rick Pacheco from Pahrump Valley High School beat me in the State Finals my junior year (1993) and I beat Charlie Mathews from Lincoln County High School in the State Finals my senior year (1994).
I left Moapa Valley right after high school and served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Upon returning, I hired on with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and bought a home in Las Vegas. During that time, I didn’t follow the sport at any level, until my first son was about 10 years old. We had him attend a few wrestling classes at the YMCA, and I fell back in love with wrestling.
We moved back to Moapa Valley in 2011. In 2012 I found out Tyson Houston was coaching elementary and middle school aged kids in the Moapa Valley youth wrestling program, and I signed my oldest son Zachary up. When I saw Tyson was coaching by himself, I asked him if he would like help. And that began my wrestling coaching career.
In the Spring of 2015, the Moapa Valley High School Principal approached me after a track meet and asked if I would be willing to coach the high school team. I asked Tyson if he would be willing to do it and he agreed. Tyson became the head coach of MVHS in 2015, and I was his assistant. He and I coached both the youth and high school programs with Steve Katich for four years and tried our hardest to build wrestling in Moapa Valley back to what it was back in the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s.
Tyson’s work schedule prohibited him from coaching after the 2019 season, and I was hired as head coach. Shortly thereafter, we began the Moapa Valley Wrestling Club, voted in a board of directors, and really pushed to build the youth program and develop a culture with expectations that would carry seamlessly over to the high school.
My first season as head coach was the 2020-2021 season, which was affected by the COVID pandemic and never happened. I retired from the police department on Jan 3, 2021 and took a job at the high school the following day. Up until that point, we didn’t have a coach on staff at the high school and our recruiting efforts suffered as a result. Having the relationship I did with my high school coach, I knew we would need to build those strong relationships with our athletes if we were going to help build boys and girls into good men and women who would go on to do outstanding things in their lives. Teaching at the high school provided me that opportunity. I also asked Aaron Walker to help out after the 2020 season and he came on board. Our first season competing was 2021-2022. We then added the rest of the coaching staff little by little to get where we are today.
As I try to figure out where our success comes from, I feel like I can attribute it to a number of factors. First and foremost, we have wonderful families and wonderful young people in our community. Parents teach their kids how to do hard things and put forth effort.
Secondly, the relationships we have been able to build with the kids has proven invaluable. Because we live in a small community, we associate with our wrestlers in church, at their other sporting events, with family functions in the community, and many other places. As I have thought about the kind of coach I want to be, I’ve come with an analogy. I feel like we can judge the health of a country by the number of people trying to migrate to that country rather than leave it. I feel like we can judge the success of a coach by the number of former athletes who, when they see him ten years after graduating high school, they make an effort to go to him and say hi rather than trying to avoid him. The relationships we build during our lifetimes will last far longer and be much more meaningful than any titles or trophies or athletic successes or failures we have.
Third, when I was hired on as head coach, I called some of the friends I wrestled with in high school and asked them for advice. The best advice came from my friend Michael Tuttle (2X State Champion) who told me he wished wrestling was just a little more fun in high school. He said if he could tell me anything, it would be to make sure the kids are having fun. I’ve worked hard with my staff to make this sport more fun for the kids. We often talk about how it’s a game and they should be enjoying playing it.
Fourth, we have spent a lot of time as a coaching staff focusing on the mindset side of the sport. Everyone who knows wrestling knows the mental game is at least 90% of what determines success or failure. But most of the time we spend less than 10% of our time training it. Our shift in focus to not only make wrestling fun, but also train mindset has been a huge part of the success of our team. We teach the kids they can control their effort, their attitude, and their discipline. Almost everything else is out of their control, so we encourage them to control what they can and surrender the outcome. We also talk a lot in the room about not focusing on winning matches. We find that focusing on winning causes kids to make matches bigger than they are and lock up because of the pressure. Instead, we talk a lot about simply putting ourselves in wrestling positions, then winning those positions. We talk about scoring points. We talk about letting go when they lose positions in matches rather than dwelling on those things. We talk about wrestling as hard as they can the entire match and never taking their feet off the gas. Then we let the kids know they can look at the scoreboard at the end of the match and almost always be happy with the results they see. And even if they lose the match, we find they are in a much better mental space following losses when they know they gave maximum effort. We find by doing so, they are able to be present during matches and wrestle free. It has been a game changer for us.
Finally, I couldn’t talk about success without mentioning my amazing wife Michele who puts in countless hours every season to ensure we are organized, and I am free to focus on coaching. Michele handles all of our transportation, gear orders and distribution, and lodging. She is amazing, and we couldn’t do it without her. If she weren’t so involved, she’d probably be a wrestling widow. So I’m very grateful she has instead chosen to embrace the sport and be all in with me. I love her more than words can say. She deserves more credit than anyone else does in my eyes.
We love Moapa Valley and we love wrestling. No other sport prepares young people better for the difficulties they will face in their lives. They will always have a reference point to draw back on when things get tough. They will always know discipline. They will always know hard work. They will always know the value of self-mastery. They will always know what it means to sacrifice. Building men and women of character will always be our top priority. Being able to experience that building process while watching them compete in the best sport on earth is just icing on the cake.
It’s a good day to be a Pirate!