Wolverine History: Derek Royster, a Three-Time State Wrestling Champion

Part seven of The Woodruff Times series "Moments That Changed Wolverine History," published February 22, 2021, profiles wrestler Derek Royster, who competed at 145 pounds in the early 2000s. Here is our summary.

Royster wanted to play basketball and kept turning down invitations from Woodruff wrestling coach Chad Singleton. When he did not make the middle school team in eighth grade, he tried wrestling and improved quickly. He was on the varsity as a freshman in 2002, less than two years after Woodruff won its 2A team state title, and he practiced against strong partners including Justin Haney, Nick Sugalski and Dustin Clevenger.

His freshman season was his roughest, at 21-13. The paper notes those losses were more than half of his four-year total of 23. As a sophomore he was 21-1 by late December, including a 3-2 win over a Chapin wrestler ranked first in the state, and he won his first state title at Furman University with a 5-4 final. He won again as a junior and a senior, finishing with three state championships and a Woodruff record of 153 wins and 23 losses. His last three seasons went 132-10, and the article says his only senior-year loss came against a Byrnes wrestler he had also lost to before.

Royster went on to wrestle four years at The Citadel and served as team captain. He and Singleton were inducted into the Woodruff High School Athletic Hall of Fame in October 2020. His honors listed in the article include four region titles, three upper-state titles, two Spartanburg County titles, 1A-2A state wrestler of the year in 2006, and the Spartanburg Herald-Journal's top-25 athletes of the decade for 2000-2010.

Read the full article at The Woodruff Times (link below).