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Natmen chase perfection in duals
BY JARED PREBLE
THE CLACKAMAS PRINT
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All eyes are on Clackamas Community College as the
wrestling team heads into the five-month long grind that
comes with the season. Following a 17-0 season and having
won four straight national dual meet championships and
four straight conference titles there’s a lot riding on the
shoulders o f head coach Josh Rhoden and team, though
they’re more than well equipped to take on the task at hand.
When it comes to wrestling, often times it’s the repetition
o f practice that keeps a w restler’s head in check. With 20
out of the 34 wrestlers being freshmen, coach Rhoden has
a slightly altered plan in mind.
“We need to challenge them differently and we need
to work with them differently,” said Rhoden. “It’s a long
season, so if-I’m a three-sport athlete in high school I ’m
only wrestling for three or four months. So we’ve built the
schedule/training cycle that there’s breaks every six weeks
so that these guys can keep fresh mentally. That worked for
us last year, we, saw great success with it.”
By no means does having a freshmen-heavy roster worry
Rhoden in the slightest. For the past five years, CCC
wrestling has held top five recruits other than DI — due
to CCC being apart o f the NJCAA — giving them a wide
range o f wrestlers with high skill levels. The freshman-
heavy roster will not, represent the varsity roster, as the
-Cougars are welcoming back five All-Americans such as
David Campbell (125 pounds), Dayton Racer (157 pounds)
and Dylan Reel (174 pounds).
When asked how Rhoden planned to top last year’s season,
he was straightforward in his opinion on how things could
go. “It’s gonna be challenging. Obviously last year’s season
is gonna be hard to compete with, but I think these guys
are pretty game,” said Rhoden.
“They’ll be excited to try and best that. If we win the
national duals this year, it will be the most ever in a row by
a junior college team in the history of that event. There’s a
lot on the line this year, and so thankfully, we’ve got a solid
core group of guys that know and they have expectations
for that so, hopefully we do sim ilar with the exception
o f scoring three extra points at the end and getting first
instead of second?’
“It’s gonna be challenging.
Obviously last year’s season is
gonna be hard to compete with,
but I think these guys are pretty
game.”
-J o s h Rhoden
Rhoden understands more than anyone just how important
it is to have wrestlers who work hard in the mat room.
“It all starts in the wrestling room with doing the workouts
and believing in the coaches as well as the process,” said
David Campbell, who is returning to the mat after a second-
place finish in nationals last year. “I ’ve been wrestling for
a while so, for myself especially, I ’m expecting to go out
there and win. I ’m gonna give it my all.”
When asked he felt about being one of the higher ups in
the mat room, he said, “I feel like a lot of people in there
look at me as a team leader. Not only because I took second
last year, but also because I know how I carry myself. I
expect us to come together with more communication, it’s
a wrestling room so it can get hostile at times and I need
to make sure everyone has one common goal and works
together as a team.”
Sophomore Dillon Ulrey, also a second-place finalist last
season, is looking to snatch the first-place title as well and
just like Campbell he is more than capable of achieving so.
“I plan to keep motivated,” said Ulrey. “At the end of
last year I got a little complacent with my training because
I was making weight easily at 165 so I got lazy with how I
was doing things and I wasn’t taking the extra steps that I
needed to take to keep in top shape. This year I ’m planning
on cutting to 157, so I think that’ll help keep me focused.”
When asked what he thought the team as a whole was
capable of, Ulrey provided a bold but by no means outlandish
statement, “I have very high expectations, I ’d say we could
be the best junior college team ever. I don’t see there being
a junior college that I know of that could keep up with the
star power that we have, this year. I think we’re extremely
solid, probably nine out of 10 weights I see us winning at
least five. If we can stay healthy as a team I see no reason
that we can’t go all the way.”
The Cougars first match was Nov. 4, and their first home
meet is Nov. 11 against Umpqua Community College.
photos by Sam Weston
On Monday, Nov. 6, the Clackamas Community College wrestling team practiced in the
Oregon City High School wrestling room.
Clackamas P r in t ----------------------- -— — ----------------- - —
theclackam asprint.net
Head Coach Josh Rhoden demonstrates moves to his
wrestlers.
NOVEMBER 8, 2017