Even Cinderella can’t top Caleb Crooks’ story

Crooks flexes on the victory stand after finishing an unbeaten season at 16-0 (courtesy Caleb Crooks)

It sounds like the plot for a made-for-TV movie, but it is not.

It is real life, and Caleb Crooks made it happen.

Crooks is a 16-year-old junior at Orme School, a private college preparatory boarding school in Mayer, Ariz. He is the son of former North Eugene High distance runner Doug Crooks, who won the mile in the Oregon state track and field championships as a junior in 1968 and ran the nation’s second fastest time (4:07) as a senior, behind only Marshfield’s Steve Prefontaine.

Last weekend, Caleb Crooks won the heavyweight division of the Canyon Athletic Association wrestling championships, putting the cap on a 16-0 season. By a vote of coaches, Crooks was named the association’s “Wrestler of the Year.”

What makes the achievement particularly noteworthy is that Orme has no wrestling team. Crooks won the state title without a team or a coach, without having as much as one practice session all season. He did it entirely on his own, save for a school chaperone who drove him to his matches throughout the season.

“Absolutely amazing,” says Tracy Hoza, Orme’s athletic director. “To be a league or regional champion, like Caleb was, is great. But to be the best in the state is phenomenal — especially since we don’t have a wrestling program.”

Melissa Rigazio, the CAA’s director of sports, says the association has never had an individual wrestler compete on his own before.

“He is the first for us,” Rigazio tells me.

Rigazio says she is “blown away” by Crooks’ accomplishment.

“To see the dedication he is putting into it, and doing it alone?” Rigazio says. “His determination is admirable to me.”

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Caleb Crooks is a state heavyweight champion in Arizona, despite having no coach or team (courtesy Doug Crooks)

The states of Oregon (the Oregon School Activities Association, or OSAA) and Washington (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, or WIAA) each have just one governing organization. There are two in Arizona — the CAA, which services about 150 schools in the state, including 95 high schools, and the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA), a larger organization with six classifications divided by enrollment, just like the OSAA.

The CAA primarily serves smaller schools, and Orme qualifies, with an enrollment of only 70 students at the high school level (it also has some eighth-graders). Orme offers several sports to its students, but not wrestling.

Doug Crooks lives in Sequim, Wash., a small town near the base of the Olympic Mountains. He divorced when Caleb was 10, and Caleb lived with him after the split through his freshman year at Sequim High.

As a freshman at Sequim, Caleb was a lineman on the football team and also the varsity heavyweight wrestler. In his first real experience with wrestling, going up against mostly upperclassmen, Caleb had a record of 6-15.

“I really wasn’t very good,” he says.

After that academic year, his father sought a change.

“Caleb needed a college prep school,” he says. “He can be good academically, but he isn’t when he is not challenged by the school. He needed a more rigorous academic school.”

Father and son agreed on Orme, located 75 miles north of Phoenix and 90 miles south of Flagstaff. They knew there was no wrestling program at Orme.

“But Caleb was determined to wrestle,” Doug Crooks says. “He pressed members of their staff about it. They said, ‘We could get a wrestling program together for you.’ They made it sound like they would start a team. It was one of the reasons Caleb chose the school, and I was fine with that. But they never did.”

Once Caleb got to Orme before his sophomore year, he spoke with Tom Willis, then the school’s athletic director. No team was formed, but Willis went to the CAA and got a special situation approved. Caleb could wrestle on a sort of unattached basis in assorted tournaments and dual meets, the latter with schools that didn’t have heavyweights. Willis arranged for a school official, Brennen Brockert, to chaperone Caleb to and from matches. Brockert would sit mat side as Caleb’s “corner,” but offered no coaching advice.

So Caleb was at a distinct disadvantage. He had no coach. He had no practice sessions all season. He would just show up for the meets and wrestle, using the knowledge he had gained as a freshman at Sequim along with tips from a wrestling camp he had attended the summer before his sophomore year.

Orme does have a basketball team, and Caleb was its starting center.

“That helped a lot with conditioning, for sure,” he says.

For wrestling matches, Caleb designed his own custom singlet. His said “Orme” on the front with “Crooks” on the back.

“I played around with a design from a wrestling website,” he says. “You can pick a layout and put on images that you want.”

On the mat, he fashioned an 11-2 record, with one of the losses to defending state champion Lee Kondravy of Mariposa. Caleb had qualified for the state tournament when he suffered a knee injury playing basketball. It ended his season.

“That was devastating,” Caleb says. “It was like one of the worst times of my life. I couldn’t play in any basketball games, either.”

Caleb rehabbed the knee, attended a college-run summer camp in Missouri and began preparing himself mentally for his junior season. The 6-3 heavyweight — who won’t turn 17 until July 2 — had filled out to an imposing 270 pounds. But he knew the road ahead.

“It was really difficult,” Caleb says. “Last year, I wasn’t expecting to do as well as I did. Any success I had I was very happy about. This past season, more was expected of me, so there was some pressure.”

Caleb played basketball again and stayed injury-free. He also played goalkeeper for the soccer team for several matches in the fall. Brockert took videos of his wrestling matches for him to watch, “and my girlfriend did, too,” Caleb says.

“Watching those helped me see what I could do better,” he says. “I got a little bit of advice from one of my coaches at Sequim. But mainly I was scoping out the territory, using what I had from my summer camps and previous wrestling experience and exploiting the weaknesses of my opponents.”

Caleb’s goal was singular — a state championship.

“I was pretty confident,” he says. “I knew I could do it.”

One incentive was his father’s state mile title as a junior at North Eugene.

“I wanted to live up to my dad’s legacy and win state as a junior,” Caleb says.

There was a final motivating factor. Chad Cate was Caleb’s wrestling coach at Sequim High. Midway through Caleb’s freshman season, Cate died of an apparent heart attack.

“He was a mentor for Caleb,” Doug Crooks says. “(Cate’s death) broke him up.”

Caleb decided to dedicate his junior season to Cate’s memory. He inscribed Cate’s last name on the singlet he wore all season. “Coach Chad is a big motivator for me,” Caleb says.

The season went well. He entered the state tournament at 13-0, including a 6-5 win over Kondravy, by now a senior and the two-time defending state champ.

“That was big for me,” Caleb says. “It gave me even more confidence going into state.”

As for his schooling, Caleb says it has gone well.

“I am getting mostly B’s, a couple of A’s,” he says. “I feel like I am getting a better education than I would at the majority of public schools in America.”

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In the championship final match, Maricopa’s Lee Kondravy maintains control with a suplex. But Crooks came back to win via third-period fall (courtesy Doug Crooks)

Doug Crooks flew to Arizona to watch his son wrestle in the state championships, which was held in Queen City.

“He had only seen me wrestle in a meet once, when I was a freshman at Sequim,” Caleb says. “So it was cool to have him there supporting me.”

Rigazio was at Queen City, too, representing the CAA. She recognized Caleb. She had seen him wrestle several times.

“He stood out to me last year,” she says. “I was sad when he got injured just before state. I loved watching him. He was out there coaching himself, a one-man wrestling program … amazing. He is a wonderful young man, very personable.”

Crooks came in as the No. 1 seed. Kondravy, the two-time defending champion, was the No. 2 seed. Walking around the building before competition started, his father learned that his son’s reputation preceded him.

“A lot of people there knew Caleb,” Doug says. “Some people had nicknames for him, including ‘The One-Man Army.’ Another was ‘The Aura.’

“I had several coaches come up during the tournament and say, ‘You have to be really proud of your son. It is amazing what he accomplished.’ That was emotional for me. He was getting recognized by others for what he is doing.”

After a first-round bye, Crooks pinned his first two opponents, setting up a finals rematch with Kondravy. Caleb took him down near the end of the first period, carved out a 7-0 lead and won by fall in the third period.

“Their match was exhilarating,” Rigazio says. “There were moments when they had everybody in the stands on their feet.”

After the match, the wrestlers came to the middle of the mat; the referee raised Caleb’s hand as the winner, and state champion.

Caleb, 270 pounds and all, did a cartwheel across the mat. “I was really tired,” he says, “but I felt like doing it.”

It didn’t surprise his father, who had watched Caleb warm up before each match.

“He was doing cartwheels,” Doug says. “He was doing three or four somersaults in a row, one after another. He was doing stretches. He would jump rope.”

After the post-title cartwheel, Caleb dropped down to one knee and pointed to the sky.

“I was thinking of Coach Cate,” he says. “I felt like he was watching over me. He gave me the power to do it. I think I would have made him proud.”

Father and son then had a long hug.

“It was very emotional for me — overwhelming, really,” Doug says. “After what he went through to get there? It choked me up. I’m pretty proud of him.”

After the match, Crooks was announced as the organization’s “Wrestler of the Year” through a vote of the coaches before the state championships.

“It wasn’t even close,” Rigazio reveals. “He had that vote in the bag.”

“I didn’t expect it,” Caleb says. “It means a lot. It’s a great honor.”

Caleb was a state champion as a junior, just like his dad.

“That’s a cool parallel, but his challenge was more difficult,” Doug says. “I had great coaches and fabulous teammates. He did it all by himself.”

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Nothing sweeter than having the hand raised by a referee while winning a title (courtesy Doug Crooks)

Now, another obstacle in Caleb Crooks’ path.

Orme School is closing at the end of the academic year, “which makes Caleb winning state and being the ‘Wrestler of the Year’ even more special,” Hoza says.

It means the Crooks are looking for a landing spot for Caleb’s senior year. They have two college prep boarding schools in mind — one in Utah, one in Colorado.

“Those are Caleb’s choices,” Doug says, “and I am fine with either of them.”

The good news is that Caleb will finally have a coach and a wrestling team.

“Neither school has wrestling, but both have an agreement with a local public school,” Doug says. “Their students can compete on (the public school’s) athletic teams. The (public school) athletic directors have both said that they are more than glad to have Caleb on the wrestling team. He will have a coach and teammates. He will have daily practice and weekly meets.”

That sounds good to Caleb.

“I am really excited for the opportunity,” he says.

Before that, he will participate in a pair of summer camps — at a three-day Oregon State camp in Corvallis and the four-day “Sun Devil High-Performance and Elite 24” in Tempe, Ariz.

“The attraction there is it will have only 24 wrestlers and at least 12 coaches — all assistant coaches and Arizona State wrestlers,” Doug says. “There will be plenty of personal instruction.”

Caleb already has gotten some attention from college wrestling coaches. He definitely wants to wrestle in college. He intends to major in mechanical engineering.

“I would love to wrestle for Oregon State,” he says.

That is his father’s alma mater. Caleb followed in his footsteps once before. Why not again?

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