Wrestlers roll out new mats
STORY AN D PHOTO BY JACOB THOMPSON
SPORTS EDITOR @SPORTSEDTHOMPS
Clackam as Com m unity C o lle ge ’ s
wrestling program is one of the best
college wrestling program sin the
nation with six dual-meet national
championships. It’ s hard to believe,
such a powerhouse program was
b u ilt w hile p ra cticin g out of a
1,500-square-foot storage closet.
Now the Cougars have a practice
facility that is fit for a champion..
In the second story of Randall
Hqll, the new mat room used space
where rarely-used classrooms sat
vacant for most' of the year. At
roughly 3,000 fee t, the new mat
room is twice the size of the original
mat room and logistically is a lot
better for Head Coach Josh Rhoden’ s
program. With the limited space of
the old mat room; the coaching staff
had to think of creative ways to get
practice time with their team.
“ We have ran two p ractices
each afternoon, rented th e high
school facility at Oregon City [High
“ It means so much to Coach
School] and split workouts between R h o d e n ,” Orrino said. “ He has
weight room and w restling room worked countless hours and years
in order to create a safe practice for this day to come and we couldn’ t
environm ent,” Rhoden said in an be happier for h im .”
interview with the Clackamas Print
To Rhoden, the facility feels like
last May.
validation of the hard work people
Rhoden m entioned that m ost in and around the program have put
recruits and recruits’ parents who in to building,a winner.
v isite d the cam pus p revio u sly
“ This means a great deal to this
were amazed th at the program program in so many ways,” Rhoden
accomplished what they did in the said. “ In some ways- it ’ s a nod to
old mat room.
a job well, done to the a th le te s,
Sophomore Braedon Orrino made coaches and adm inistrators who
his decision to come to Clackamas helped this program succeed and
not based on the facilities, but on evolve to what it is jnow.”
Rhoden’ s coaching.
The new mat room is n ’ t just
“There is no place or coach I would . benefiting the wrestling program,
rather be w ith ,” Orrino said. “ The b u t also s e lf-d e fe n s e p h ysical
lower facilities, I feel like, is what education classes that will use the
makes us so tough. ”
space that before,the construction
. But Orrino is glad for the new was an unutilized space for the last
facility because of the work Rhoden two to three years, according to
put into the project.
Athletic Director Jim Martineau.
“ This was a super low cost, high
impact restructure of classrooms,”
Martineau said. “ We knocked down
some w alls, moved some offices
from one end to the other and
created a space where they can get
more wrestling team members in
practice for sure, but we can also
get bigger ¿elf-defense classes so
i t ’ s a win-win for sure.”
As far as a bump in recruiting due
to the new mat room, Rhoden might
have trouble accomplishing that, as
he has already had; five straight top-
five recruiting classes, fin ish in g
w ith the second best recruiting
class of all non-Division I schools
this year. That ranking accounts
for all D iv is io n -II, Divisuon-111,
NAIA and Junior College programs.
Rhoden added jokingly that with
the new mat room it will ho longer
be the last place he takes visiting
recruits.
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Wrestlers Jason Shaner (top) and Layn Pannkuk ( bottom) battle on the new mats during their 6 a.m. practice on Tuesday, Oct. 16.
Clackamas f lin t
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th e c la c k a m a s p rin t.c o m
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