2025 High school wrestling preview: Elyria Catholic's Grady Moos is a fan and competitor

When the NCAA championships were held in Cleveland in 2018, a young Grady Moos was right there matside waiting for autographs from some of the top college wrestlers in the country. "I've been around the sport of wrestling my entire life but the NCAAs in Cleveland was probably what really got me attached to the sport from a fan standpoint," Moos said. "I've always liked watching matches and just having fun at wrestling events. But that event really opened up my eyes to wrestling." Moos is the son of Elyria Catholic assistant coach Mark Moos, who was a two-time state champion at St. Edward and won national titles in Greco-Roman and freestyle in 1998. Mark became a three-time NCAA qualifier while at the University of Michigan before beginning a coaching career with stops at St. Edward, Lorain and Elyria. "Growing up a lot of people would tell me that my dad was very, very good," Grady said. "But my grandpa showed me some tapes of my dad wrestling just recently and one was like his Fargo final matches and that was very cool to see. Me and my dad have very similar styles so he's a good mentor to me on and off the mat. "One of my earliest (memories) was of my dad coaching at Lorain. I remember running around the tournaments with my brothers and cousins." It was during Mark's time on the Pioneers coaching staff that he and his son got to know Elyria Catholic head coach Mick Burnett. Grady also spent his early summers working out with Mick's father, Hall of Fame coach Erik Burnett, at Burnett Trained Wrestling. "He's been around the sport for as long as I have and growing up around this atmosphere is nothing really new to him," Mick Burnett said of varsity meets. "Getting all that experience before some of these other guys, I think that kind of gives him an edge. He's been around, he's been to the state tournament, he's watching and seeing how things go. So I feel this is going to be a really great year for him." Like most young kids, Moos tried the more popular sports first. "I played basketball but I'm obviously a really small guy," he said. "So when I started wrestling and kept practicing and getting better, I started falling in love with it. Then my dad took me to tournaments (that Lorain competed in) and I saw those guys doing well, it got me excited for my own stuff." Lorain County fans have also been watching and waiting for Moos to make his high school debut as he's been heavily involved on social media, promoting his career and wrestling events — as well as other activities such as Cavaliers games — from a young age. That inside look at his life included a scary moment when his wrestling career was paused while he had to deal with a medical emergency. "It was like right before COVID happened and it might have been COVID because they couldn't really diagnose me, but it was just some illness that ended up putting me in the hospital," he said. "I was coming home from a tournament in Virginia Beach and I was just really sick. I was throwing up the whole way home and I had these sharp pains, so that kept me off the mats for a while." Moos has shown steady progress during his career and is entering his first high school season on a wave of momentum. He capped his middle school career by winning the OAC junior high state championship, then earned All-American status by finishing fourth in 16u freestyle at the nationals in Fargo, North Dakota. "(The OAC title) was a big moment for me because I didn't win in junior high before then and I watched a lot of my friends win, so that pushed me," Moos said. "I was very proud (of the national placement), too. That was a very tough tournament and I was able to show my coaches and myself my mental capacity and keeping my weight down and bouncing back after tough matches … I was able to compete with the best in the country and at the same time having fun. "I gained a lot of confidence in my wrestling over the last year so when I'm on the mat now I'm not nervous, I'm ready to wrestle. So I'm just out there letting it fly." The addition of another Moos into the Panthers wrestling room — Grady's brother Maddox is a junior — has been a blessing for Burnett, who says Grady will not only be an asset in the lineup but also provide energy during practices. "Grady's been around the sport for so long and he's so technically good, it's going to be a huge play for our team," Burnett said. "But he just gets it. Even though he's young, he helps the guys with less experience and he does things so guys can understand and helps them break things down … it's a coach's dream having a guy like that." Moos is excited to see what his high school career will bring and hopes he can inspire the next generation of wrestlers the way he was inspired when he was young. "I'm really excited to start this journey," he said. "Hopefully one day it'll be like a full-circle moment and I'll be the one giving out those autographs." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X.