Grappling with business: Plott, Surber pursue MBAs during final OSU wrestling season
Monday, September 16, 2024
Media Contact: Hallie Hart | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-1050 | hallie.hart@okstate.edu
Luke Surber strolled into the Oklahoma State University wrestling lounge and slid into a gray booth as he wore a triumphant grin.
Sitting at the table, teammate and friend Dustin Plott knew the result, but he asked anyway.
“You got it?” Plott said. “You won?”
Since their formative years at wrestling powerhouse Tuttle High School in Oklahoma, Surber and Plott have molded themselves into champions. At OSU, they’ve made gruesome sacrifices for their sport — injured muscles, swollen ears and, in Plott’s case, dislodged front teeth — to each prevail with winning records through four seasons.
But when Plott asked about Surber’s latest victory on a September day off from practice, no ice packs were needed for pain relief.
Surber, dressed for corporate life in a spiffy orange polo shirt, had won a competition in his graduate-level case consulting course. To secure the prize lunch at The Ranchers Club, his group delivered a presentation on the proactive market strategy of popular technology company Roku.
Surber had a chance to flex his business knowledge, and Plott could relate. Although Plott isn’t enrolled in Case Consulting with Surber this semester, the teammates have two classes together as new MBA students in the Spears School of Business, learning to discuss market trends with the level of expertise they use to talk about about escapes and takedowns. From action-packed duals in Gallagher-Iba Arena to professional presentations in the Business Building, the longtime friends inspire each other to achieve, even when times are challenging.
“That’s really a major reason we’ve been so tight as long as we have,” Plott said. “We’ve got similar goals and both want to live the lifestyles associated with that, so it’s allowed us to grow together.”
Those lifestyles revolve around wrestling as long as possible while equipping themselves with skills that can guide them long after they hang up their singlets and headgear. This past season, Surber and Plott qualified for the NCAA Championships with Plott finishing as the runner-up at 184 pounds. They also collected Academic All-Big 12 and National Wrestling Coaches Association Scholar All-American honors, each winning both awards for the third time.
Surber and Plott’s academic diligence traces back to Tuttle, Oklahoma, where they were National Honor Society students.
From there, their journeys mirrored each other in many ways.
“It’s been a blessing,” Surber said.
Constant motivators
He rose to All-American status at Tuttle. He signed with OSU on Nov. 13, 2019, after growing up attending sold-out duals in Gallagher-Iba Arena. This past spring, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness from OSU’s Ferguson College of Agriculture.
This is the story of Luke Surber.
It’s also the story of Dustin Plott.
In August, the student-athletes continued on the same path, joining the Watson Graduate School of Management’s newest on-campus MBA cohort.
Despite sharing milestones from their teenage years into adulthood, the longtime friends met as rivals.
Plott initially wrestled at Blanchard, about 20 miles southeast of Tuttle. The growing rural communities, along with nearby Newcastle, compete in Tri-City rivalries across multiple sports. In eighth grade, Plott flipped sides and arrived at Tuttle, preparing to bolster a high school dynamo then led by coach Matt Surber, Luke’s father.
Although Plott was the new kid, he inspired the coach’s son to follow his example. Plott was heralded as the nation’s top-ranked high school wrestler at 182 pounds, and with a firsthand look at Plott’s training regimen, Surber understood why.
“It just helped me see what I needed to do to get to that level, so that just helped myself and my wrestling career,” said Surber, also a highly touted recruit. “All the extra hard work that he was doing was paying off for him, so seeing that is what I remember.”
As teammates and college roommates, they continued to inspire each other in Stillwater, persevering through different obstacles. Surber saw Plott fight through injuries to compile a 15-6 record as a freshman. Then three-time All-American Plott watched Surber bounce back from a torn pectoral muscle and an injured knee to advance to the NCAA Championships this past season.
Surber undoubtedly showed grit through those setbacks, but he might have accomplished his most impressive feat as a sophomore.
Despite wrestling at 197 pounds as a freshman, he bulked to about 225 for the good of his team, filling the heavyweight spot. Plott, who remembers Surber as a 113-pounder in high school, witnessed the once-wiry wrestler constantly lifting weights and packing calorie-rich food into milkshakes.
“Luke was super-kind mentioning my work ethic,” said Plott, who spent three seasons at 174 pounds before increasing to 184 last year. “But he’s a very hard worker as well and someone I look to for motivation to work harder.”
While navigating the unpredictable ebbs and flows of college wrestling, Plott and Surber maintained their commitment to academics, pulling off a difficult balancing act.
Plott credits his father, Robert Plott, for instilling this studious mindset in him.
“He always emphasized wrestling being a means to education,” Plott said. “Wrestling opened a lot of doors for me in a lot of areas, but the biggest one is being able to get a college degree. Once I got here, it was like, ‘OK, all this work I’ve been doing in junior high and high school, staying on top of my schoolwork, I’ve got to keep doing it to get a degree.’”
For years, Plott and Surber’s busy lives have revolved around school and wrestling, and they have fueled each other in both worlds. But as the teammates prepared for their fifth and final year at OSU, the reality of adulthood hit quickly.
How could they ease their upcoming entry into the workforce?
The answer was the same for both, and it awaited in the crescent-shaped Business Building visible from their home wrestling venue.
The value of an MBA
After obtaining their bachelor’s degrees, Surber and Plott knew they didn’t need to hop into the transfer portal and search the nation for a fitting graduate program.
Andrew Bloemhof, their former OSU teammate from Bakersfield, California, participated in the Spears School of Business MBA program and spoke highly of it. Intrigued by the versatility an MBA provides, Plott and Surber researched the application process and, thanks to their undergraduate achievements, received acceptance into the program.
Staying in Stillwater makes perfect sense for several reasons. Surber can spend one more season on campus with his younger sister, Madi Surber, a junior on OSU’s cross country and track team. He and Plott can wrestle for David Taylor, the young superstar hired to succeed the legendary John Smith as the Cowboys’ coach. With reserved season tickets selling out in August, there’s clearly a buzz in the air around OSU wrestling.
The prestigious athletic program supports Surber and Plott’s shared will to succeed.
Founded in 1960, OSU’s rapidly growing MBA program does the same.
“Regardless of your career path, an OSU MBA offers tremendous educational, professional and networking benefits, expanding skills that translate to a variety of fields and increasing a graduate's earning potential," MBA Director Matt Bowler said. "We have had several OSU wrestlers graduate from the MBA program and go on to successful careers. Dustin Plott and Luke Surber are just two of our newest cohort who see the value of an OSU MBA. Equipping students like Dustin and Luke with business acumen, the OSU MBA empowers them to become the next generation of business leaders."
The Spears School of Business offers an on-campus MBA program, a hybrid professional program based in Tulsa and an online program, which is No. 16 in the U.S. News and World Report rankings of more than 1,600 online programs and also appears on a Yahoo! Finance list of most affordable online MBA programs. Although the online and hybrid options provide flexibility, Surber and Plott opted to balance their wrestling schedules with in-person classes, benefiting from the face-to-face learning environment.
In his first semester, Plott is well aware of the academic rigor.
“If I had been in these classes freshman year, there is no chance I would have passed,” Plott said. “But now, having been around for four years and understanding expectations athletically and academically, it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
Like any student, Plott has grown since stepping onto campus as a teenager. He’s planning for his future, which includes a wedding — Plott made local news headlines in June with his heartfelt proposal to fiancée Brooklyn Rackley at Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy Store.
Surber also realizes he isn’t a kid anymore, and his girlfriend, former OU softball player Macy McAdoo, can relate to him when they discuss life after athletics.
“When you’re younger in college, you feel like the workforce is farther away,” Surber said. “Now, getting older and realizing I can start working just makes me realize I need to start preparing myself for the future a little bit more.”
Naturally, Surber and Plott exchange ideas about where they envision themselves in the workforce. Plott wants to first wrestle on the world stage with Olympic goals after college, but they both aspire to eventually give back to the sport in some way, whether coaching or working for a youth organization. Through their MBA courses, they are gaining the expertise to navigate the business side of the rapidly evolving sports industry, opening doors to the offices and behind-the-scenes operations that propel athletic programs forward.
“I felt like the MBA could enhance my skills, so that’s what led me there,” Surber said. “Just getting into the program, it’s going to help me in my future.”
Plott, of course, agrees.
To learn more about OSU’s award-winning MBA program, visit the website.