Bulldogs' Delaney aiming to improve national status

Armed only with a BB gun, Odie Delaney was out hunting squirrels near his hometown of Willow, Alaska, when he spotted the prize target.

A moose.

"I was tracking it down, and I found it," Delaney recalled. "But since I only had a BB gun, I ran about two miles back to my dad, sprinted the whole way. He came out and shot it. We turned the whole thing into sausage. It was awesome."

Delaney, now a sophomore at The Citadel, is pursuing his wrestling goals with the same fervor with which he tracked moose, black bear and grizzly bear in his native Alaska.

At 6-4 and 197 pounds, Delaney last year became just the second freshman in Citadel history to advance to the NCAA championships. Last week, he was named Southern Conference wrestler of the week after recording six pins in eight matches.

Delaney has a 15-3 record and is among the nation's leaders with 12 pins as the Bulldogs host five-time defending SoCon champ Chattanooga at 6 p.m. today in their league opener at McAlister Field House.

He traces it all back to Willow, a small town of about 1,600 hardy citizens located some 75 miles north of Anchorage.

"A bunch of cousins, lots of outdoors, and that's pretty much it, man," he said with a grin.

"Backyard wrestling is big in Alaska," Delaney explained. "Just wrestling around with your friends, and people up there are physical, outdoor types. But as far as team wrestling, it was just pretty much backyard wrestling with a little bit of organization, not much technique."

That was enough to produce a few state titlists among Delaney's 14 cousins. Odie finished third in the state as a seventh-grader, but a broken collarbone kept him sidelined as an eighth-grader.

His parents' divorce led Delaney to move to Florida with his mom before his freshman year in high school. Better coaching and improved competition helped him win a state title as a junior at South Walton High School in Santa Rosa Beach.

And when Delaney finished fifth at Senior Nationals, good enough for All-America honors, Citadel assistant Jeff Ragan was the first coach to meet him off the mat.

"I stepped off the mat, he was in my face, talking to me about The Citadel," Delaney said. "And I was automatically interested. I had seen a flyer about the school before, but I saw the uniforms and was like, 'Nope.' But when Coach Ragan talked to me about it, I got more interested."

At 6-4, Delaney is almost always taller than his opponent, and uses that edge to his advantage.

"My style is leverage-based," he said. "I don't use a lot of muscle. I use the other dude's weight against him and try to put them in leverage situations. I'm not getting tired while they are using a lot of muscle, and I get a lot of pins in the third round."

Delaney is aiming for a return to the NCAA championships this season, where a top eight finish would earn him All-America honors, and hopes to win a national title before he leaves The Citadel.

It's a long shot -- like hunting a moose with a BB gun.