After loss of father, Augusta’s Willy Jon Morales fulfills shared dream to be a champ
Eleven seconds separated Willy Jon Morales from a lifelong dream.
Needing an escape in sudden-death overtime of the heavyweight championship match at the Class 4A state wrestling tournament, the Augusta senior could clearly hear one voice in a crowd of noise.
“I can always hear my dad yelling at me during a match,” Morales said. “It will just be a little thing, but then it will always end up working out. I feel like he knows me better than I know myself.”
Maybe it was an idea planted in his head by the voice of his father or maybe it was just his own instincts, but when the whistle blew and the seconds began dwindling, Morales executed a flawless barrel roll against his opponent, the undefeated Osiris Unruh from Jefferson West, to score the winning reversal.
After a lifetime of dedication, triumphs and heartbreaks, Morales couldn’t wait to share his crowning achievement with his father, who first introduced him to the sport of wrestling and coached him as a boy.
As soon as he returned home from the state tournament in Salina, the first thing Morales did was hop in his truck and drive to see his father.
He pulled into Elmwood Cemetery on 12th Street in Augusta a little after 10 p.m. and with the gold medal still draped over his neck, Morales walked to his father’s grave, where he has been buried since December 2020 when he died of complications from COVID-19.
His father has been gone for a little more than four years now, but his presence has never left his son.
“I just felt like I needed to talk to him,” Morales said. “I wanted to tell him about everything I did. I know he saw it from above, but that was the first thought that crossed my mind after I walked off the mat. I bet my dad would be proud.”
‘Putting on a fake smile every day’
As a former football player, Gabe Morales was beyond proud to have a big, strong son who could move people on the football field and on the wrestling mat.
When Willy Jon was 5, his father asked him if he wanted to give wrestling a shot. It’s a hard sport, he warned, but rewarding.
“I didn’t know anything about wrestling,” Willy Jon recalled. “But I knew I wanted to do it because I saw the excitement in his eyes.”
It didn’t matter the sport, Gabe loved nothing more than spending the weekend traveling and watching his children — Willy Jon and Elly, his older sister — compete.
From that burning desire to see his children be successful came a fiery intensity that overwhelmed Willy Jon at times when he was younger.
“He broke me when I needed to be broken and he built me back up when I needed to be built up,” Willy Jon said. “I hated him for a little bit for how hard he pushed me, but in the end, it all worked out just like he wanted and I love him for that.”
“He did push Willy Jon really hard, but it was out of love and knowing what Willy Jon could be,” said Ruth Morales, his mother. “He loved his kids so much. They really were his world, he said that all of the time.”
Willy Jon was an eighth-grader in Douglass when his father died not long after the coronavirus pandemic began.
The world didn’t make sense without his dad.
“He was my wrestling coach, my dad, he was the guy who was my guide in life,” Willy Jon said. “After he passed, I was in shambles really. I was confused. I felt pretty alone. I know I had my mom and my sister, but they couldn’t relate to me like my dad could. After that, I would go to school in this shell and I was kind of putting on a fake smile every day.”
Gabe was 42 when he died. His wife of 19 years thought they had a lifetime ahead of them.
“Numb is the word that comes to mind,” Ruth said. “I was just going through the motions there for a while, just trying to survive. I was just really numb.”
After Willy Jon finished up middle school in Douglass, Ruth made the decision to enroll him in high school at Augusta, where the majority of his friends were and where Brandon Terry, who helped coach him in youth wrestling, was the high school wrestling coach.
In the family’s time of crisis, Ruth valued comfort for her son over everything. As time passed, Willy Jon started to let down the barriers he had put up since he lost his father.
“My dad was real strong in his faith towards the end of his life and I started to realize he was in a better place now and I know he is looking down and watching me,” Willy Jon said. “I knew he wouldn’t want me to crawl away and sulk and not pursue my wrestling prowess. He wanted me to shine, so I wanted to shine for him.”
‘Gabe was there every step of the way’
After his father introduced him to the sport at the Augusta Wrestling Club when he was 5, it didn’t take long for Willy Jon to start dreaming about winning a state championship.
He was proud of his accomplishments — he finished top-4 at the Class 4A state meet all three years — but the loss in the 2024 finals gave him a glimpse of what he was missing.
“Coming into senior year, it was really more of a mental thing with me,” Willy Jon said. “I realized this was my last shot at a high school title, so there was nothing to hold back. I didn’t feel any pressure. I didn’t have any worries. Every time I went out there, I was free.”
Despite a knee injury sustained during the season, Willy Jon continued to rack up win after win. But so did Jefferson West junior Osiris Unruh up north, so it was fitting the two met for the championship in Salina.
The final was tense with each wrestler scoring an escape to send the match to overtime tied 1-1. After a scoreless overtime period, Unruh started on bottom for the first 30-second sudden-death period.
“I’ve won a lot of matches off grit,” Willy Jon said. “We work so hard in the practice room, always trying to do a little more than your opponent to make sure you have that extra bit of stamina when you need it. So I was comfortable in that position. I knew I had it in me.”
After Willy Jon successfully rode out his opponent for 30 seconds, he was given 30 seconds to escape for a chance to win the title. A stalemate was called with 11 seconds left, which put Willy Jon in the middle of the mat with time almost out.
That’s when he let his instincts take over, executing a barrel roll move that he typically wouldn’t try. It worked to perfection.
And for one final time, Willy Jon pointed to the sky with his two index fingers — one for God, one for his dad.
“I have no doubt in my mind that Gabe was there every step of the way,” Ruth said. “Pushing him, helping him grow, preparing him. He’s been (pointing to the sky) for a long time, but that one, that one meant so much more.”
Not only did Willy Jon end a 33-0 season with a state championship, he finished his career with 144 victories and became Augusta’s winningest wrestler in school history in the process.
“It was emotional for all of us,” Augusta coach Terry said. “It’s just a different kind of gratification when somebody is so deserving to win like Willy Jon. That kid has worked so hard and put in the time and overcome so many things in life, he absolutely deserved that moment.”
Wrestling was always the special bond Willy Jon shared with his father, but since Gabe’s death, a new connection has formed between a son and his mother.
Watching Willy Jon fulfill his promise as a championship wrestler, the kind his father always knew he could be, has meant more to Ruth than she could ever express.
To a family still picking up the pieces and working their way through grief day by day, Willy Jon thriving — athletically, academically and socially — has brought healing and kept the legacy of his father alive.
“As a parent, you just want your kids to be healthy, emotionally and physically, and you want them to be well-rounded people,” Ruth said. “You want them to make it through hard times and still be OK. So it makes me feel good to see him and his sister come out of this and be healthy and stable. It makes me feel like, OK, I didn’t fail them as a single mother after this hugely important person is gone from their lives.
“Watching Willy Jon now, it just gives me relief as a parent to know that he’s doing OK.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2025 at 6:02 AM.
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