Starmont’s Keaton Moeller returns from knee injury, ready for senior wrestling season

Keaton Moeller has stepped on the wrestling mat thousands of times.

He’s endured practices and workouts and competed in more matches than he can probably remember, but this instance is fixed in his mind. This moment is etched in his memory – April 28, 2025, according to Moeller.

“I just wanted to be able to step on the mat with shoes again,” Moeller said. “I physically couldn't remove the smile from my face because I just remembered how much I missed it. In a way, I thought about how far I'd come since the injury and I've never been so grateful in my life.”

Moeller was a two-time state medalist and became Starmont’s first state champion wrestler in almost four decades when he won the Class 1A 150-pound title as a sophomore. He missed all of last season and was unable to defend his title due to an anterior cruciate ligament tear during his junior football season.

Faith, family and a fire for being his best has driven him down the long, hard road to recovery. Moeller is excited for his long-awaited return for his senior season.

“You couldn't imagine,” said Moeller, who has signed to wrestle with University of Northern Iowa. “There's something about the adrenaline that you get during competition and going to beat anybody and everybody that wants to stand across from you. There's so much addiction to that adrenaline high that you don't get from anything else.

“Far too often, you take for granted just the ability to lace the shoes up and toe the line.”

Moeller started playing sports as early as he could walk. He had a passion for athletics and wrestling has always been at the top of his list. Competition, and the success he earned, seemed intrinsic to happiness for the Stars’ football player and track runner.

All that changed with the wonky thud of a defender’s helmet to his left knee in the season opener of the 2024 football season. He knew something was off but that didn’t prevent him from trying to play it off as an insignificant ache or pain. Moeller hoped it was a tolerable meniscus tear, going so far as to do cartwheels to show he was OK. His mother urged him to get checked and an MRI revealed the bad news.

“It was just a whack injury,” Moeller said. “I just took a handoff up the gut and took a big guy straight to the knee. Definitely felt something off there. Then, I finished the game, got checked out and I guess the rest was history.”

Moeller couldn’t overcome his emotions on the way home from the appointment. He was devastated and couldn’t understand why something he loved had been taken away from him.

No more sports his junior season. No continued resurgence for the Stars football program as one of its linebackers and running backs. No chance to help Starmont relays return to the state track meet and no opportunity to bring back another state title to his community.

During the ordeal, he changed his perspective and his faith played a key role.

“My life was completely centered around sports,” Moeller said. “I'm not afraid to admit that in any sense. My everyday mentality and mood was always based off of how well practice went, how I competed, and honestly, whether I won. Everything was centered off of how I was competing in sports and God was on the side at the time.

“I honestly feel like, at the time, I started taking for granted how blessed it was to get to wake up and grind each and every day. When you start to see that as a chore, then God's going to take away what you don't appreciate. God gave me what I needed. I mean, He gave me that mental and physical reset.”

His parents were a major influence on how he handled the setback.

“They’ve been there from the start,” Moeller said. “They're the ones that initially instilled in me that it's not as big as you make it.”

Surgery was performed on Sept. 6, 2024. Moeller called out the exact date immediately when asked.

“Trust me,” Moeller said. “I never thought I’d count down the days more until the first day being able to walk on two legs for a day, being able to take off the wrapping to take a shower and finally getting back able to do athletic things. You take it for granted.”

After the procedure, Moeller underwent intense physical therapy. He said he had never felt “attacked” more than the first couple weeks, having to learn basic things like refiring his quadriceps muscles and using electrotherapy. Just sitting on his butt and straightening his leg to flex his thigh was challenging.

Moeller graduated to using crutches for three weeks and advanced to a straight-leg brace about the two-month mark. He had to develop patience. His competitive nature wanted to get to the next step faster than planned and beat the timeline.

“He was back to work, rehabbing his knee and doing what was best to get him back to where he could compete,” Starmont Coach Jake Munger said. “There wasn’t any sulking or feeling sorry for himself. It was, ‘OK, here’s my next step. Here’s what I’ve got to do.’ A lot of that comes from his personality.”

Moeller said he was grateful for the guidance and support of his physical therapist Kelly Harrold and received good advice from his supporters, even if it meant sacrificing an early return. A common mistake that some make during rehabilitation.

“As a dumb, young high school athlete, who thought he was better than the rest of the population, of course, I thought I was going to be able to rush it and be back in half the time everybody else was,” Moeller said. “My physical therapist, my coaches, my parents and family, made it clear to me that I needed to take an ample amount of time to get it back to 100 percent.”

Moeller also considered his future. Unlike some high school athletes, he had a college career at stake. He didn’t want to jeopardize his shot to wrestle at UNI, which won him over in his very first visit.

“That was probably the easiest decision in my life,” Moeller said. “Looking for a college, you want coaches and players that you are willing to die for. And the moment I stepped foot in there on my visit and RTC practices for the first time, I was like I am willing to go to war for any single one of you and I was so happy, knowing that I knew any of those guys would go to war for me. I think that's what made it so easy.

“It was a huge culture as a huge family.”

Moeller maintained the course, building back muscle, learning to jump and stop and getting to jog again before working on lateral movement.

“It takes a lot more out of you than you think to regain the ability to do that stuff,” Moeller said. “It was a process from start to finish. It took a lot of looking at the small victories and being grateful for each day, making a little more progress than the day before.”

Even while he was sidelined, Moeller was engaged with his teammates. He manned corners for wrestlers and shared his knowledge, accompanying the state qualifiers to Des Moines. In just a few weeks of this season, Munger has witnessed Munger help teammates improve by explaining techniques, demonstrating hand fighting and footwork or pushing them during live wrestling and workouts.

“You couldn’t have a better teammate,” Munger said. “You have to work hard in order to get points, in order to get position. And then he’ll coach you up.

“As a coach, I feel lucky and blessed to be around him.”

Wrestling supplied him with many of the characteristics needed to conquer the injury and the toughness to persevere the rigorous exercises to reach full strength again.

“I might be a little biased, but I've never played a sport that's been harder than wrestling in terms of practices and competing,” Moeller said. “It definitely takes your best and I think that's what truly made everything else that much easier. Wrestling is a sport of adversity, and being disciplined, not even what's just on the mat but off the mat.

“It was a lot more of what I'd already had up to that point, and I feel like the results might have been a lot different had wrestling not been in my life, because that type of adversity that you get in wrestling, that resiliency, you don't see in other sports near as much.”

Moeller was ecstatic to get back on the mat in April but he had his first live practice in July. The Stars first state champion since Kent Streicher won the last of three titles in 1989 returned to competition this fall competing in the Super 32 tournament in North Carolina and won the 190-pound title at the Premier National League Fall Championships title about four weeks ago.

“He’s a pretty quiet, humble kid,” said Munger, adding, “He’s very hungry. Just the amount of effort he’s put in from when he had his knee surgery … the amount of effort that he puts in just his work ethic is just unmatched. It’s phenomenal.”

When the season opens at Cascade Friday, he welcomes the challenges presented by opponents. He is stronger and better than ever and is armed with a new appreciation for the opportunity to wrestle.

“The target is going to be on my back,” Moeller said. “That's something you have to accept and you have to want it. I've made it known to myself that it only adds a challenge to the sport, because you have to know everyone's coming for your name and your spot, but that’s what I totally trained for. I train as hard as I can just so it makes it that much harder for anybody else to knock me down.”

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com