St. Clair senior Cameron Simcox has grown tired of narrow misses.
During the Class 3 District 4 championship football game against Sullivan this fall, St. Clair scored a touchdown with 18 seconds remaining to trim the deficit to 14-13 and decided to try a two-point conversion to win the game.
They handed the ball to Simcox.
“We ran a power (running) play and I just couldn’t get it in,” Simcox said. “Went down on the one-yard line.”
Inches from ultimate glory may be an apt metaphor to describe Simcox’s outstanding wrestling career.
He wrestled in the 138-pound state title match as a sophomore, losing to two-time state champion Ayden Dolt of Excelsior Springs to earn the second stair on the podium.
As both a freshman and junior, Simcox lost a tough match early in the state tournament, then rattled off three consecutive victories to climb the podium with fifth and fourth place medals respectively.
Simcox, who has accumulated more than 150 wins in his career, will begin his final postseason alongside childhood friends Brock Woodcock and Ryan Meek as St. Clair competes in the Class 2 District 1 boys wrestling tournament Friday and Saturday at Ste. Genevieve.
The Missouri Class 2 boys state tournament will take place in concert with Class 1 boys and Class 1 girls on Feb. 22-23 at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.
Simcox, Woodcock and Meek were practically toddlers when they began their wrestling journey together.
“I started walking and I was on a wrestling mat right after that, and so were they,” Simcox said. “Every time I’m with them, wrestling is a topic. That’s our identity.”
In 2020, Woodcock won his first of two state championships. In 2021, Meek captured his first state title. The three-time state placer Simcox often envisions the perfect ending to their wrestling story.
“I get butterflies thinking about winning a state title,” Simcox said. “I’m hungry for mine.”
The hunger to stand atop a state podium does not equate to anxiety for Simcox, at least not to start this postseason.
“It’s not really pressure. I’ve been wrestling so long that I’m over the whole nervous part,” Simcox said. “I would say it’s excitement.”
A poster hangs in the St. Clair gymnasium with the photos of Woodcock, Simcox and Meek to commemorate each reaching the 150-win milestone. Coach Mel Hughes is quick to interject the name of Simcox when others want to talk about the successes of St. Clair wrestling.
“He’s an outstanding young man and a real talented wrestler. People sometimes forget we have three, three-time state medalists. They also don’t realize that Cameron was in the championship match as a sophomore,” Hughes said.
After Meek won a thrilling, 113-pound championship match over previously undefeated Caleb Husch of Cameron High to capture his first state title last season, his childhood friend Simcox was on the forefront of his mind.
“Cam wrestled a great (state) tournament, but next year we’re excited for all three of us to be in the finals,” Meek said. “We’re like the trio. We’ve been dreaming of this since we were kids.”
Moments later, Woodcock won his second state title in the 145-pound bracket. He also thought of his lifelong friends.
“We’ve all been wrestling together since we were four or five years old. It’s a great experience doing this (tournament) together,” Woodcock said.
If Simcox wends himself through a district tournament bracket and eventually finds himself running through the smoke machines and onto a championship mat at Mizzou Arena, he will know he earned it.
“I feel like I want it more this year than I ever have. I guess that’s part of being a senior,” Simcox said. “I just think about that (moment) all the time when it gets hard. I know I have to sacrifice for it, and I’ve been doing that.”
Simcox has gained an extra level of inspiration by watching the vast improvement of the St. Clair girls wrestling team. He joined Hughes and the St. Clair coaching staff last Saturday in providing encouragement and advice for the Class 1 District 1 champion girls team.
“The girls have really had a lot of success recently and if I’m being perfectly honest, they probably go in the room and work harder than the guys team does,” Simcox said. “I’m proud of them and proud of the success they’re having. They deserve it.”
Simcox has received offers to wrestle in college but has not yet committed. If he does, he will join Meek (Ohio) and Woodcock (Southern Illinois-Edwardsville) as frequent stops on the Mel Hughes retirement tour.
“I’m planning to spend a lot of time following these guys,” said Hughes, who will retire after this season after a 40-year coaching career.
No matter the postseason results, Hughes anticipates the final walk together through the exits of Mizzou Arena will be a difficult one for the trio.
“There will be some emotional moments after that state tournament is over when they start thinking about how they’re heading separate ways,” Hughes said.
But now is the time for Simcox, who recently developed a love for playing golf, to take aim at being the best wrestler in his weight class as he approaches one final state championship run.
“I’m zeroing in on a state title,” Simcox said. “I’m excited to see how it turns out.”