Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 9, 2012)
4 The Clackamas Print Wednesday,! May 9, 2012 sportsed @ clackamas. edu 198 i® to A 1 - B aliar^ (right) as he attem pts opponent to T ^ e ta a S ttto n a ljttn a tn g fir tb e w r e s tlin g p r o g r a m ^ v h ic ^ is th e only sport a t Clackamas C om m unity College th a t competes a t the n a tio n a l level. Wrestling struggles to garner attention the overall air o f the gym during the scrimmage speaks, •volumes about the strength of the wres tling program and the coaching Late on a Friday afternoon, prowess of Rhoden. In a n econ wrestling coach Josh Rhodens omy where schools are forced office was empty and dark. to cut anything they don’t see Many of the students who made as, necessary, wrestling is often the building a bustling busy one, o f the early things to go, place had gone home for the and /to compete at a national weekend, leaving little to mask level, there is an extraordinary the; shouts and squeaks of sneak amount of work that needs to/ ers that echoed from the gym. be don?. Rhoden hasn’t built Looking closer, Rhoden still the program without a fight. While Clackamas has had couldn’t be found. The court was taken up by a group o f men' wrestling since 1971, it hasn’t playing pickup basketball; shirts always been as good as it is now. ana skins, but there wasn’t a Barring the national champi onship in 1971, there weren’t coach on the sideline. Minutes later, one o f the many highlights up until 2007 players drove the lane and when six wresders, tied with scored a bucket, bringing’ the the most in school history up game to a close. At that point, to that point, placed at nation one of -the skin’ players'jogged als. Four years later, -Clackamas over to the baseline, donnea a todk home their second nation grey shirt and held out his hand al championship, a product of grit, hard work and fundraising. in greeting. Rhoden, now sweaty but rec .This year, another step was ognizable, smiled and remarked made in the fundraising process. The Cougar Classic ^grap to the other players that they’d be back on the court in a few pling tournament was meant to minutes. It was then that a be a new fundraising opportu few faces began to stick out, nity. Planned for Saturday, May as many of the NJCAA’s best 5,~ the tournament was spon wrestlers were- now meander sored by Team Quest, a mixed ing around the gym. Martin martial arts club in Portland, Gonzalez, region 18 champion and CCC. wrestling alumnus in the 133 lb division was sitting M att Lindland, who won asil- on the baseline. Trent* Noon ver medal in the 2000 Olympic (both members of TAe Print), Games. who won his weight class and “We were gonna try to get it took fourth place at riationals, off the ground thfs year,” said conversed with several of his Rhoden. “We’ve been working teammates. with Matt Lindland at Team The collection of talent and Quest to get some things roll By John William Howard Sports Editor ing that can . get some revenue streams in for the 'wrestling team just because we’re under funded.” While it isn’t tfre most expen sive sport at Clackamas, wres ding does spend more money than any other program on recruiting, much of which is fundraised by the program itself. T hat money, according to Rhoden, .is'crucial tp com pete with some of the other Midwestern junior college pro grams that have a much larger budget. . “It takes, money. There’s no other way' to look at it,” said Rhoden. “We’ve got some alumni that are supportive of trying to say ‘Hey, let’s look at creative ways? to gain revenue streams.’ We looked at the grap pling event as one avenue, and we just didn’t get the support we hoped for.” Struggling for support o f a wresding . program is nothing new to the sport, as it isn’t in the spotlight like basketball, football ’and baseball are. Calling wres ding a “fringe” sport, Rhoden said that most o f the people that follow'wrestling either par ticipated in it, or had kids that wrestled. Comm unity atten tion and involvement are low, but extending Clackamas’ track record of victories and alumni support will breed success. “It starts small. It’s grassroots, but that’s kinda where we’re at right now,” said Rhoden. “We’ve won one championship, and while that’s great, it’s gonna take more winning and contin ued success for people to keep coming.” Com m unity involvement isn’t the only challenge that wrestling faces.. Because the sport jsnt as well known, wres tlers are often lost to other sports like football and soccer. Rhoden said that wresding loses count less recruits to the mainstream sports, especially heavyweight wrestlers to football. . , “I wanted to do something hard, and wresding is way hard er [than football],” said fresh man Jake Laden, w ho wresded in the-285 lb division and won region 18 in his class. “It’s also individual... I don’t have to rely on anybody else.” Freshman Terrance Joshua agreed that he liked the indi vidual aspect, _and said that he: enjoyed that he was able to control his own destiny when on the mat. “W ith this, Lean just come here and work'my ass off,” said Joshua, who is the only return ing wresder in the 197 lb. divi sion. “I can spoil in my own sweat, as opposed to going to university.” Laden and Joshua were just two of the many wresders that chose. between wresding and. other sports, but Rhoden says that tne rising popular ity o f mixed martial arts may give wrestling some traction. However, at the end of the day, Rhoden sticks , by the idea that victories are what will ultimately make wrestling an attraction at Clackamas. “Were gonna carve out our niche by winning. That’s/m y mindset,” said Rhoden. “I don’t think there’s, any other prac tical way to look at it, just because were a junior college. We’re not a DI program, so you’re, not going to get the same kind of following. You struggle with alumni because they have attachments to’ four year pror grams, and- , so now we’re Just like ‘if we win, they’ll come?”
