A Christmas Story of Cowboy Wrestler Kaid Brock and Choco Top
STILLWATER – All apoligies to Rudolph and any other famous reindeers on this Christmas day, but their relatives, the non rein deer, are hunted in Oklahoma and need to be with the over abundance of their population. That is where the legend of “Choco Top” comes in. Oklahoma State wrestler Kaid Brock has always been an outdoorsman. If he’s not on a wrestling mat then there is a good chance he is walking the fields in Payne County or somewhere else in Oklahoma in a tree stand waiting for the next target. Brock will tell you that in between classes, which right now are almost exclusively online, he needs both wrestling and hunting to make him whole.
“Kaid grew up in Stillwater and has had great ambitions. His ambition to be a star was always there, but he has suffered some setbacks because of his injuries. He has dealt with setbacks that I never had to deal with,” explained Oklahoma State wrestling head coach John Smith. “We want to keep him healthy this year and we’re glad to have him back.”
Smith, who does a good bit of hunting himself along with his boys, was on a Zoom call earlier Christmas week and the subject of hunting came up. Smith has nothing but good things to say about Brock, who has persevered through two season ending injuries. Brock’s first injury came at the Southern Scuffle in his first competitive season where he went 19-1. He was pulled out of red-shirt late in 2015 and then after the injury back into medical red-shirt. Then before last season Brock suffered a torn ACL in August and was loss for the season with the NCAA granting a special medical red-shirt for a season that actually wasn’t finished. Brock’s battle with injuries kind of runs on a symetical time line with his pursuit of Choco Top.
“That deer gave me the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I hunted that deer for three-years,” Brock said in starting the saga of Choco Top. “I never got a shot at him until it was Dec. 10 of 2017 I had that deer at 20-yards broadside and nothing obstructing the shot but he had broke off half his rack.
“The next year I had him at five-yards underneath me in the tree at dark and my flashlight fell when I was trying to climb down,” Brock continued with the history he had with Choco Top.
Smith said the stories of the misses were told accurately.
“I like a great deer hunter and he always tells the truth when he goes hunting,” Smith said of Brock the hunter. “I’ll tell you this, he’s missed a lot of deer with his bow. This season with his bow he’s made up for all of those times that he missed. One of my great memories of Kaid is when he was little and he and Joe (Smith’s son Joseph Smith) were wrestling little league in Stillwater and Kaid just used to beat Joe up on a daily basis. He would blister Joe. One time Joe went right out of the gym and it was almost a mile before I chased him down, Joe was so mad.”
As mad as Joe was that day, Brock was getting a similar mad on failing to bag Choco Top.
“Then the next year when I actually got him, the third year I was hunting him. This is the year I was hurt, the last year (2019) and I was working out at night and hunting every day,” explained Brock of his relationship with wrestling and hunting and how they were connected. “That’s all I would do. I had online classes. I never had an encounter with him. When I went, he wasn’t there and when I wasn’t hunting then he would show up.
Kaid Brock was at wit’s end. He was injured and couldn’t compete in wrestling and in the outdoors of Payne County his number one rival in the deer population wouldn’t show when he was out looking for him. That was until December of 2019, when Brock had the wrestling equivalent of a single leg shot that missed followed by perfect shot that quickly led to a fall.
“I finally had him and I shot a (tree) limb, missed,” described Brock. “That is one of those stories coach was talking about where I missed. It was going to smoke him and I hit a limb. I was so frustrated I about wrapped my bow around a tree. Then a cold front came in and I went back in after him. I went in and sure enough around 4:30 and here came http://instagr.am/p/B6GnSGTh7e4?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">Choco and I put the hurt on him.”
Choco, who scored 174, represented a huge goal accomplished and now Brock is looking for that kind of overall victory with his wrestling. A two-time All-American in his red-shirt freshman and sophomore seasons at 133-pounds and now preparing for his second full season at 141-pounds, Brock is healthy and hungry. He has had lots of time to think things through, thanks in part to Choco Top.
“Hunting as I got older, helped me get away from the stresses of life. When you’re 20 feet up a tree and your are enjoying God’s great outdoors it kind of puts things in perspective when things aren’t going right,” Brock explained. “When I was injured, I spent a lot of time in a tree just being with my thoughts and my health.”
Brock is the oldest wrestler in the room and it is a young room with a top notch recruiting class full of freshman, some likely to wrestle this season. Brock is just the kind of wrestler that can lead that group to great things. He certainly knows a lot about perseverance thanks to injuries and a deer that played his role of being a tough adversary.