North Allegheny 4-time PIAA wrestling champion Ty Moore dies

Ty Moore, a former North Allegheny phenom who championed the sport of wrestling even years after he claimed four state titles, died unexpectedly Tuesday.

Moore, 43, a 1990 North Allegheny graduate, became the first wrestler in state history to win the first 100 matches of his career and finished as a four-time PIAA Class AAA champion with a career record of 146-1. He won state titles at 98, 105, 112 and 119 pounds and served as the brightest star for a Tigers lineup that ranked among the country's best, including in 1988 when it finished the season ranked No. 1 by Amateur Wrestling News.

He was inducted into the WPIAL Hall of Fame in 2010.

The family could not be reached for comment, but former teammates and friends Ray Brinzer and Jamie Kyriazis, also 1990 grads, said Moore passed away in his sleep.

Visitation will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at George A. Thoma Funeral Home in Wexford.

Moore's achievements made him a revered figure among North Allegheny wrestlers, even years after his graduation.

“He was really the face of NA wrestling through his years as a competitor,” said Kyriazis, now North Allegheny's coach. “Then he gave back to the sport through coaching and continued to help in that capacity through the club.”

The Angry Fish Wrestling Club, established by Moore and Brinzer around 2000, allowed Moore to pass on the attributes that produced such a decorated career.

“The thing that our athletes drew from him was understanding what single-mindedness was,” Brinzer said. “He communicated that well and inspired it in people who had potential for it.

“When he would do virtually anything, he had a real intensity about him and an ardent drive to do it well and make sure everything was right.

“It was a little difficult for him to just sit in normal society that way, because he was such a warrior.”

Moore later wrestled at North Carolina but didn't repeat his high school success. At North Allegheny, he won his first 104 matches. His lone loss, a 4-3 decision, came against Connellsville's Jeff Stepanic in the WPIAL finals in 1989.

“He was driven, cunning, sneaky, mean,” Brinzer said of Moore. “You can only really say things about someone that's in a combat sport, where you don't mean some of those things to be insulting.”

Even decades later, Tigers took note.

Alex DeCiantis, a 2013 grad who wrestles at Drexel, first met Moore as an 8-year-old who tagged along when his older brother, Karl, went to Moore's club practices.

“I was a little young to understand how serious and passionate he was about the sport,” DeCiantis said, “but when he started running practices and drills, you weren't scared, but you weren't shocked that he was a four-time state champ.”

Despite Moore's intensity in the room, DeCiantis viewed his club coach as a fun-loving mentor.

“You had to get past a certain point with him to appreciate who he was, and his athletes got to do that,” Brinzer said. “I'm not sure a lot of other people did. But there was something very good about him that a lot of people were not able to perceive.

“He was able to get (wrestlers) to do the things that they did because they knew how committed he was to them and they knew how much he cared.”

Bill West is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at wwest@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BWest_Trib.