Rhoden sparks golden era on mats
BY JACO B THOMPSON
SPORTS EDITOR @SPORTSEDTHOMPS
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It was 2006 and now Head Coach Josh
Rhoden and his wife Keri were living in
Redmond, Oregon. Rhoden had just finished
his master’ s degree and was a long-term
substitute teach er for a second grad e;
class. The Rhodens had built a house just
six m onths ago, and Josh was setting up
an interview for a fu ll-tim e fourth grade
teaching position. Rhoden had just helped
lead Redmond High School to fifth place in
the OSAA 4A Wrestling Championships as
an assistant. If not for a phone call from Lou
Coy, it’ s hard to know exactly what Rhoden
would be up to today, but after the phone
call, Rhoden was on the way to becoming
the leader of arguably the nation’ s m ost
dominant NJCAA wrestling program in the
last decade, whether he knew it or not.
Coy inform ed Rhoden th at Clackam as
C om m unity College had an opening for
head coach of wrestling after Mike Haluska
departed for Portland State. Coy believed that
Rhoden should apply for the job and Rhoden
had interest, but also had doubt.
“ I remember being super nervous because
I wanted to coach at this level, but thought
I was too young to be hired at 26 and lead a
program^” Rhoden said.
Despite the nerves, Rhoden threw his hat
in the ring for a chance at the job, which had
plenty apply. Rhoden’s first interview was .
via telephone with the hiring committee and
the interview went well enough to earn him
an in-person interview with then Athletic
Director Jim Jackson.
Rhoden headed to Oregon C ity from
Redmond to meet with Jackson and despite
fe elin g like th e interview w ent great,
accepted the fourth -grad e teaching job
w h en .h e returned to Redm ond because
he was so worried he wouldn’t get the job.
But Rhoden’s worries were for not, he soon
received a phone call from Jackson asking
him if he would like to become the next head
coach o f Clackamas Wrestling.
“ I was scared to death to be ho n est,”
Rhoden said. “ We had just built a house. I had
been a graduate assistant and a high school
assistant, but neverhad m y own team .”
Aftertalking with Keri and praying about it,
Rhoden decided he would take the coaching
job at Clackam as. B ut he still needed to
Clackamas Print -------- ---------------
Awarded the 2011 National Coach of the Year as well as the 2015 National Junior College Athletic Association Man of the
Year, Rhoden has been recognized throughout the college wrestling world for his accomplishments at CCC.
“ The vision early on was, ‘Hey I th ink
inform the elem entary principal o f his
we can do.som ething really special here,”
decision and again he was nervous.
Rhoden said. “ And just the com m itm ent
“ Now I gotta go tell this principal and
it’ s the m ost nervous I’ve been because , from our staff and the guys that have been
I’m young sp it’ s like I don’t have a lot of a part o f w hat w e’ve done from the very
experience telling people ‘ sorry,’ ” Rhoden beginningis, ‘I think we can be excellent.’”
Rhoden knew what type of program he
said. “ He was on playground duty. I’ll neyer
forget it. I walk out there and I was like, ‘Hey wanted to build at Clackam as from his
I really appreciate this opportunity but I have own experiences w restling for different
p rogram s, but th e youn g coach found
the opportunity to go teach and coach in
college over in the valley and coach wrestling h im self behind the com petition w h en it
came to program resources.
nationally and he was like, ‘Man you gotta
“ I knew we could be successful here, but
do- it, you gotta do it, I understand. D on’t
I.knew it was going to take som e tim e ,”
worry about it.’ ”
And with -that the Rhodens were leaving Rhoden said. “ W hen we first got here, we
had eight scholarships and everyone else
their new home and headed for Oregon City.
Even though Rhoden didn’t know exactly was working with 16. The budget was super
where to begin, he knew what his vision for tiny and it still kind of is, we just fundraise
the heck out o f everything. I just knew it
the program was and that it would take a lot
of work to accomplish the goals he wanted was going to take some w ork.”
With a small budget, Rhoden had to figure
to pursue.
theclackam asprint.com
out w hat h is program could afford right
then.
“ Little by little you had to pick away at
the things that can help right now and the
wrestling room wasn’t there,” said Rhoden
in his office overlooking the Cougars new
mat room. “ We needed scholarships because
we could go get kids if we had scholarships. ”
Former Clackamas dean of students Bill
Zuelke and Jackson believed in the value of
the wrestling program and helped secure
more scholarships for the Cougars.
Before the Cougars ever took the m at
under the leadership of Rhoden, he needed
to track down the remaining wrestlers from
the 2005-2006 team and convince them to
stay with the program through the coaching
change.
“ As soon as I could I got the number of
th e guys that were here because some of
them were like, ‘Eh I don’t know what I’m
iff