When Corbin Wooley was five years old, he wanted to play football. But after getting hit by a car as he was crossing the street, he missed signups while he recovered.
Following his uncle’s advice, he signed up for wrestling instead. Nearly ten years later and wrestling has long since replaced football as his passion.
“It’s like a daily ritual for me,” says Wooley. “I train almost every single day. The only day I don’t practice is my tournament days.”
In addition to wrestling with the Clyde Boyd Middle School junior high team, he also trains with the Keystone Kids wrestling club, Team Tulsa, and the Threestyle Wrestling club.
That commitment has paid off for the eighth-grader, who has already won three tournaments this November, with runner-up finishes in two others.
Wooley originally lived in Jenks before making the move to Sand Springs for middle school. He has fit right in as a Sandite and has also found a place on the conference champions eighth grade football team, playing safety and receiver.
Just as an injury helped Wooley find wrestling as a child, an injury also took him away from the sport this past year.
One year ago, at the Bixby Thanksgiving Classic, Wooley suffered a season-ending injury. His elbow was both broken and dislocated, requiring surgery and physical therapy.
“When it first happened I had a lot of things going through my head,” said Wooley. “I was definitely scared. I had so much adrenaline that it didn’t feel real.”
Fortunately, he has mostly recovered from the injury and hasn’t lost much mobility.
“There are definitely some occasions where I’ll be scared of something happening and I’ll have to give up a hold or something because of positioning, but besides that I really don’t worry too much about it.”
Prior to his injury, Wooley won a dozen tournaments in 2021, including OKUSA novice state titles in both freestyle and greco-roman.
This year he has already won the Bixby Junior High Open, the Union Open, and the Bixby Thanksgiving Classic. He was also runner-up at the Mat Gear Monster Brawl and the TTWC Veterans Day Classic.
Over those five tournaments he has gone 19-2 with 16 pins, outscoring his opponents 67 to 12.
“I feel like I’m doing pretty good this season,” said Wooley. “I’m hoping I can just keep this streak going. I know there’s definitely going to be some good kids in my bracket. I don’t worry too much about it, I just want to wrestle as best as I can.”
“He’s a good kid,” says Sand Springs junior high coach Cody Karstetter. “He didn’t get to compete as a seventh-grader, so he kind of missed out on that year, but I know he’s been working hard in the offseason and with his club team and on his own time, trying to get back from that injury.”
“He’s grown, he’s matured a little bit physically. I think right now we’ve just got to get him in the right mental spot and the sky's the limit for him.”
Because of his in-state success, he has also been selected to compete on the Oklahoma junior high team at the Holiday Duals National Tournament in Virginia Beach this December, but he needs a little help getting there.
The Wooleys are looking to raise $500 to help with the cost of travel before they leave on December 5th. Anyone looking to help can cashapp Rachelle Wooley at $ihav2angels or can email her at rachelleWooley@hotmail com.
The youth and junior high wrestling programs in Sand Springs have a lot more stars than just Wooley, and seven other Keystone Kids won their brackets at the Thanksgiving Classic.
“I expect to have a pretty good year,” said Karstetter. “We’ve got a lot of older guys and some younger guys who have kind of stepped into a little bit of a leadership role.”
“We’re starting to kind of click as a team. This week we get all of our freshmen in the room and those guys make a huge difference as well.”
Hagan Wolfenberger, Wes Wilson, Camon Martin, Ayreson Reiss, Kasen McAffrey, Ryker Dawes, and Brackton Upton all placed first in their divisions.
Carsten Reiss, Blaze Ingram, Karsen Waag, Collin Randall, Na’Kya Canady were runners-up; Kayden Worthington, Colt Combs, Gage Buchanan placed third; and Ty Galloway, Joshua Compton, Landon Replogle, Grayson Shoopman placed fourth.
Sand Springs will host its annual junior high home tournament December 2-3 at the middle school.
