Zack Ryder Discusses Reuniting with David Taylor, Transition to Life in Stillwater

STILLWATER — This isn’t the first time Zack Ryder has gone through a transition to work alongside David Taylor.

Ryder forewent his senior year of high school to move to Pennsylvania and train out of Taylor’s M2 academy. After redshirting at Penn State last season, Ryder transferred to Oklahoma State this offseason to again work alongside Taylor.

“It was really easy when I hit the transfer portal,” Ryder said last week. “I knew the second I was going into there where I wanted to go. Me and him formed a really good bond there and Penn State, and it was really smooth just to come here. I’m excited for the future. We’re gonna be a great team, and we’re gonna dominate.”

It might sound odd to someone with a traditional high school experience to hear of someone leaving their home state to go to a wrestling club, but Ryder wasn’t your run-in-the-mill high school athlete.

Back in 2022 (the summer after Ryder’s sophomore year of high school), Ryder took bronze and the U17 World Championships in Rome. He matched that result by taking home another U17 bronze medal in Istanbul the next year.

Then Ryder, who had been committed to Penn State since early in his junior year, made a proposition to his parents.

“I made my first world team and went to Rome, all that,” Ryder said. “And then I made my second world team, and I was like, ‘Mom and Dad, if I make one more world team, can I move up there and train with David Taylor and train with Penn State?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah.’

“So, it was a process and I moved up there my junior year, like around May, and finished it online. Had to go through a whole process with school and everything. Whole senior year it was just RTC practice and David Taylor. The M2 environment, it was a great place when I was there and David and other coaches were there. It was just awesome, just getting that hard work in and learning from the best, David Taylor — the Olympic champ. It’s a great opportunity now that I’m here. We formed a great bond there.”

Ryder made the U20 team in 2024 and earned a silver medal, meaning he collected three age-level world medals before he wrestled a college match.

His redshirt year with the Nittany Lions wasn’t dormant. He went 8-0, winning the Southern Scuffle and earning a share of the Black Knight Invitational title. At the Scuffle, he pinned 2024 All-American TJ Stewart and beat DJ Parker, who made it to the blood rounds at the most recent NCAA Championships.

“He’s just a kid that pretty much always has a smile on his face,” Taylor said. “He’s still developing a lot of skills. He’s been a really strong kid and has had a lot of success, and now I think he’s really learning how to wrestle in a lot different situations. He’s always asking questions, sometimes too many questions, but I think it’s because he really cares and he’s trying to get better. Those are really fun kids to try and help.”

Although the Cowboys open their season Nov. 7, Ryder is one of two Pokes who will actually get going a little early. Ryder and Casey Swiderski are set to wrestle at the NWCA All-Star Classic. The event doesn’t count on official records, but Ryder, ranked seventh nationally at 184 pounds, is set to scrap with No. 4 Jaxon Smith of Maryland on Nov. 1 in New Jersey.

With the event being close to home for Ryder, he said he has about 30 people going.

How has a kid from New York adjusted to live in Stillwater, USA? Well, Ryder is from upstate New York, in what he called “kinda the country.” Since moving to Stillwater, he owns a pair of cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and a “little” belt buckle.

“The big change I’ve seen a lot is the weather,” Ryder said. “It’s really hot here, and it’s really cold in New York. My dad works outside. He does landscaping and hardscaping and all that stuff. I FaceTime him in the morning, and he’s wearing like a beanie and a jacket. I’m out here sweating outside. That’s just really the big change I’ve seen, just a couple more cowboy hats and belt buckles and the weather.”