Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2019)
SPORTS 7 Reigning champs move into new season WRESTLERS PREPARE FOR THEIR FIRST OFFICIAL MATCH ON NOVEMBER 2ND PHOTO AND STORY BY JACOB THOMPSON EDITOR IN. CHIEF Clackamas Community College’ s wrestling team is coming off the program’s third National Championship. The Cougars dominated the competition in the 2019 finale, scoring a NJCAA team record, 176.5 points. Returning four A ll- Americans and two other National Championship: qualifiers, Clackamas is excited for the upcoming \ season, but trying to take it one day at a time. As Hawaiian blend starts to flow from the Keurig in Head Coach Josh Rhoden’s office, an energy starts to build on the second floor of Randall Hall. It’s one hour and 38 minutes before the sun will rise, but a , swarm of wrestlers is already gathering outside the new mat room waiting to get the 6 a.m. practice underway. Rhoden adds honey to his black coffee and checks to see if any wrestlers are missing. The most notable not on the mat is Marty Margolis III. H e’ s, in the basement rehabbinghis shoulder that he injured during last year’s national tournament. He-missfed out on placing or receiving honors, but Rhoden credited All-American Margolis’s act as exemplifying the drive. Six months (after team’s the dust ¡ a , - settled, Margolis says he - doesn’t regret his decision to wrestle at nationals. “ Not even - a little bit, I mean it was one more . match, not a problem. I don’t regret it at all,’’ Margolis III said. “ [My decision to wrestle] wasn’t for me, it was for the team. For me I would be unsatisfied if I wasn’t on top of the podium, so it hurts me either way.” Margolis III is hoping to complete rehab and return to action by New Year’s, and once he does, the sophomore has big plans for himself. “ 1 plan on being the national champion,” Margolis III said. “ I just gotta get these shoulders right. That’s been the goal since nationalslastyear, get better and come right back to the same tournament and prove that I deserve to be pn top.” As Margolis continues to workout his shoulders, returning All-Americans Zeth Brower and Jason .Shaener spar in the mat room. The pair areworking on the bulldog and becoming better wrestlers each practice. “ We’re trying hot to focuson being national champions [in 2016], we’re mainly just focused bn wrestling and getting better at what we do, ” Brower said. Clackamas Print - ------------------------------------ The reigning national champions open the season J n three days at Southwestern Oregon Community College, andShaerter says the intensity and the competition during practice has him and his teammates ready to go.- “ We wrest Je so hard inhere that when we drivé a. couple hours for one match, it’s nothing m an,” Shaener said. “ We wrestle Tour matches in the morning and it’ slough matches against péople that could be All-Americans or National Champions everyday.” The athletes aren’t the only ones looking to Improve their cràft. Associate * Head Coach Brett Sanchez, now In his second, year, says he noticed areas he could . improve his discipline and organization. “ You literally gotta do your best on tim e management, so I’ve been doing schedules and planners just so you canbe on top of everything,” Sanchez said. “ And when you do it that way these guys see it and learn how to become self1 managers and become organized.” Sanchez got married this offseason and said he’s Working on balancing being a husband and à coach ‘ full-tim è. Along with his coaching and recruiting duties, the second-year coach dropped ,a significant amount of weight this offseason as he felt he wasn’t ' at his best physical condition. “ I was weighing around 240 last year at the national tourney last year, I realized I wasn’t my best, I couldn’t teach thé technique I wanted to teach, I wasn’t able to bend down the way I Wanted to bend down,” Sanchez said. “ When you move like that sometimes these guys are, kind of like ‘ehh,* - thecláckam asprint.com - now I move a lot better, I’m. healthier now, and guys kind are ‘Okay I believe you now,’ when I’m healthy I’m bettér and they get better.” The coaching staff and.the wrestlers have a lot in common in this program. Both groups are still hungry for success, both are striving to-be the best they can be, and both are taking it one day at a time. “ I think every year it’s for these guys to getbetter every day,” Rhoden said about expectations of the upcoming dual. “ I know that .spunds cliché, but it worksTor us. We’re never going to be results-driven, it’ s not like if we go down to Coos Bay and losé it’s not like the sky is falling, wé just need to make some adjustments. I think the expectations are always to be one of the best teams in the country top to bottom, and if we do that every single' day and get everyone from our best guy to our worstguy working as hard as they can, we’re going to get the result we want. ” As Clackamas’has grown into a national powerhouse year in and year out, the target on their back has grown, and they love it. “ There’s always .Something like that everywhere we go,” Rhoden said. “ Obviously ? ; winning a, national championship helps us in terms'pf people loving to hate you, but they sort of already did because we’ve béen pretty good for a while. Finally getting [the national championship] the way we did, I’m sure * didn’t help with our love-hate relationship with the rest of the United States.in wrestling at this level, but that’s okay.” Sanchez thinks a lot of the reasonthe Cougars have a target on their back is the enthusiasm and the energy the program brings during dual meets but credits the success of the program to the enthusiasm that Rhoden brings. “ That man Josh Rhoden, he created an environment where you feel like you can better yourself in all aspects^,either academically, becoming a self-manager, becoming accountable, getting better at wrestling, of course,” Sanchez said. “ A litile place like this in Oregon City you have everything you need to be successful. It doesn’t really matter where you are on the map, as long as you’re in an environment like that where you feel the love and support, I thinkanyone would come oyer, here.” ............ ............... ............. October 30, 2019
