Peyton Moore takes pride in the success he and his senior classmates have helped bring Nixa in practically every sport.
The Eagles and Lady Eagles are enjoying good times, winning conference and District titles in bunches.
“Me and my friends have come in and really taken over sports,” Moore said. “Nixa has gotten better and better and better every single year.”
Moore is looking forward to being a part of more winning ways at Nixa in the years to come. After wrestling at Mizzou, his ambitions are to join Eagles wrestling coach Dustin Martin’s coaching staff.
“I’m planning on coming back to coach here,” Moore said after capturing the third District championship of his career over the weekend. “After wrestling and being one of the all-time greats here, I’d love to come back and represent my school as a coach. I wouldn’t really want to go to another school. Nixa is where I want to be.”
Moore would follow a similar path as Eagles coach Dustin Martin, who is a Nixa grad.
“I’ve told him I’m going to come back here one day and coach for him,” Moore said. “He said that would be great.”
Martin relates Moore has already shown signs of his potential strengths as a coach.
“He does a good job investing in his teammates and trying to help people out with tendencies,” Martin said.
“There’s a lot of pride in wrestling for Nixa,” Moore said. “You come here to wrestle and we’re going to make you good.”
Moore upped his record this season to 34-4 by winning the Class 4 District 3 126 title. He rallied from a 4-1 deficit to beat Lebanon’s Davis Joiner 13-6 in the final round.
Moore expects to contend for the 126 championship at State, along with Kolby Warren, of Christian Brothers College, and Peyton Shephard, of Francis Howell Central.
“Warren beat me at the Kansas City Stampede 2-0. I want revenge,” Moore said. “I beat (Shephard) 4-2. I want to beat him by more.”
Moore is plenty motivated to impress his future Mizzou coaches, who surely will be on hand at Mizzou Arena.
“I want to go up there and show the coaches I’m there to become great,” he said. “I’m ready to get back in the wrestling room and work on stuff I need to fix and come out at State showing everybody what I can do.”
