Embracing different cultures, Anchorage wrestler Jacob Morris wants to be ‘top dog’ and enjoys competing abroad

Jacob Morris has already accomplished a feat that most wrestlers around the state haven’t — and he’s not even in high school.

The eighth-grader at Goldenview Middle School has dominated on the mat and in mud pits on more than one continent.

“My drive is to improve and to get on a different level than most people,” Morris said. “I want to be the top dog in the country and get to a higher level like college.”

Through his involvement with Wrestling World Tours, he has been able to gain more experience, exposure to different cultures and opportunities to meet new people and learn new techniques.

He started wrestling when he was 4 years old but was only able to get in two months on the mat before his family moved to Norway.

They didn’t find any local wrestling clubs over there at first, but when they moved back to the U.S. two years later, he joined a club in Colorado and found a passion for the sport.

“He really kind of fell in love with it, and then we moved (to Alaska) four months later, and it’s been a love and a passion for him ever since,” said his mother, Jill Morris.

Jacob’s father is a project engineer, and his mother is an architect. Those careers have meant a lot of moving and traveling for 13-year-old Morris.

Morris was born in Houston, Texas, and at one and a half years old moved to Wyoming, where he first started wrestling. He spent two years overseas, lived in Aurora, Colorado for six months, and has called Anchorage home since December 2015.

“Most of his life he remembers here, but I think his time in Norway really spurred a little something in him that he just loves traveling,” Jill Morris said.

He inherited his parents’ love for travel, and through Wrestling World Tours, has been able to marry that passion with the sport of wrestling.

His experience living and competing overseas has given him a different mindset and view of the world than most kids his age.

“I had read that actually, repatriating back to the States was probably harder for some than it was for others moving (away initially), and it was the case for us,” Jill Morris said. “We all just enjoyed living overseas so much that coming back was actually harder. When he actually went on his first overseas trip, he came back and he actually said that he felt more at home over there than he did back in the States.”

Since they’ve lived in Anchorage, his love for embracing other countries and cultures fostered during their initial travels hasn’t subsided.

“He’s a very unique kid and is just very adaptable,” Jill Morris said.

He has been involved with the Wrestling World Tours since he was 10 years old because even though he was one of the top youth wrestlers in the state, he wanted to seek out even better competition and learn different styles.

“He loved the competition. But there was one kid here that he could never beat,” Jill said. “He just wanted something that would allow him to better himself.”

After first trying a camp in Wisconsin, his parents decided to send him on the world tour. It was as a Christmas present, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it wasn’t until he was about 12 that he actually got to go on his first world trip with the program.

Morris has competed in Sweden, Denmark, India and Estonia, where he took second at one of the largest European tournaments.

While in India, he engaged in a style of wrestling called kushti in which they wrestle in the mud, and there is no point system.

“I liked it because the objective is not to beat the kid by points, it’s to pin them,” Jacob Morris said. “You’re only goal is to pin them.”

Excited to be a Wolverine

Morris briefly pondered the possibility of attending a prep school after junior high instead of a traditional high school, but his bond with South Anchorage head wrestling coach Randy Hanson made him want to stay and join the program.

“He has taught me new techniques, helped my conditioning, helped my endurance and helped my mental,” Jacob Morris said. “I like how Randy runs his practices, and I like how he pushes the intensity in them.”

He has been regularly training with Hanson for the past five years at Legacy Jiu Jitsu and has embraced the challenge that comes with sparring and drilling with high school wrestlers the past few years.

“I get better partners, higher intensity practices, improving my conditioning and improving things like strength and experience,’’ Jacob Morris said.

He has been wrestling at 115 in middle school and intends to bump up to the 119 or 126 weight division in high school.