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