University of Minnesota Athletics
Graduating Gophers: Josh Mora
5/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
By Joey Erickson, athletics communications
Every college wrestler has one thing in common: they are chasing a dream. Whether that dream is to be an Olympic champion, NCAA champion, All-American or anything else, they have the desire to spend every day pursuing that dream.
Perhaps no Gopher wrestler exemplifies this drive quite like Joshua Mora. Becoming a Gopher was the dream for Mora.
Mora, a native of Albuquerque, N. M., attended five J Robinson Intensive Camps before graduating high school. A Black Hat Award winner as one the camp's hardest working wrestlers, Mora tells a story about Jayson Ness, fresh off his 2010 national championship, selecting him from the crowd of campers to be a drill partner at a practice. Among many memorable moments in his camp experiences, that one sealed his dream to wrestle for the University of Minnesota.
The chance to wear Maroon and Gold wasn't available to him coming out of high school, yet he travelled halfway across the country anyway to wrestle for Division III Augsburg College in Minneapolis. After a strong showing with the Auggies, he had the opportunity to transfer to the U and live out his dream.
Mora recently completed his final season with the Gophers and now he's preparing to chase his next dream. This summer he will move back home to New Mexico to work in the Bernalillo County Sherriff's Department.
Mora's father worked for the state police department when Mora was young and is now the undersheriff in Bernalillo County.
"I'm excited to follow in his footsteps. I've known that I wanted to be a cop for a while," Mora said. "It's just in my blood I guess."
Growing up around the profession and watching his father has given Mora plenty of experience in the law enforcement world.
"I don't even know how many ride-alongs I've gone on," Mora said. "Every summer since I was in seventh or eighth grade I probably went on ride-alongs a couple times a week. I've done a lot, probably too many."
This firsthand experience in squad cards isn't the only thing preparing Mora for his new career. Some of what he learned as a member of the Gopher wrestling team will also help him in law enforcement.
Mora quickly points to a concept that head coach J Robinson calls the "Warrior Mindset," the idea that a person needs to be ready to go no matter what is thrown at him.
Another important lesson he has learned during his time with the Minnesota wrestling program is humility.
"Over the course of our career being in college wrestling, being down in the room, just grinding day-in and day-out, you learn that humility a lot," Mora said. "Most days aren't your day. You're feeling down, you're cutting weight or just the whole grind itself on top of the schoolwork. [It's] learning to keep pushing through and grinding through that and knowing that you're not the best but still strive to be the best, whatever it takes to do that."
Possibly the most important lesson he'll take from Minnesota was not one he learned during his time on campus, but one that was reinforced daily during his time in the wrestling program.
Mora talks about how he learned hard work from a young age. His parents owned two businesses, in addition to his father's job as a police officer, so he had a relentless work ethic instilled in him from a young age. That same thinking was pushed on him every day he spent connected to Minnesota wrestling, both at J Rob camps and in the Gopher Wrestling room.
"Being able to hold your head high, especially during those tough times and keep pushing through, that's how I've been able to achieve all my goals," Mora said. "Having that instilled in me from a young age, to keep trying, tugging along, knowing full well that you're not perfect and life is just a work in progress. That's honestly what has gotten me to this point."
Mora isn't only a dreamer. He's an achiever. He has the resume to prove it. With the right mindset, humility and hard work, whatever the next dream for Mora may be, it's a good bet he will chase it down.
Players Mentioned
