4
SPORTS
Wrestlers reflect on Rhoden, time on the mat
STORY BY KORTNEY PARR
STAFF WRITER
Victor Jacinto said he came
to Clackamas to get out of his
home town. Steele Starren didn’t
even want to wrestle in college.
Both wrestlers competed in
the national championship in
March, where Clackamas won its
fourth consecutive title. The two
freshmen sat down to talk about
their
experiences
wrestling
during Covid and moving to
Oregon City to wrestle for Coach
Josh Rhoden.
The Clackamas Print: What is
your normal wrestling routine?
Steele Starren: During the
season, we do 6 a.m. every day,
except for when w e get a break
on Wednesday. Then we go back
at like 3 for like conditioning, 3 to
like to 5 for conditioning.
Victor Jacinto: Yeah, so if we
don’t have a tournament coming
up or any duels we usually have
something on Saturday where we
just do like a live match. Kind of
like a simulation of a tournament
and we have like three matches.
That’ll be it.
TCP: How do you prepare for a
match? What goes into all that?
Starren: Usually, you’re pretty
focused on just getting your body
right. Because then you gotta cut
a lot of weight, like it really drains
you. Like mentally and physically.
So I don’t know this year I’ve only
cut a couple pounds. So I showed
up to the tournament like a couple
of pounds over and then we used
to practice w hereverw e went, so
we could cut some weight.
Jacinto: So you have to be right
on weight. So my weight was 149.
And I couldn’t be like one ounce
over. So say if I woke up the
morning of a tournament, and I
The Clackamas Print------
Wrestlers Steele Starren and Victor Jacinto take a break on a mat. Photo by Ayla Fashana
was like .4 over, I would have to
go and run and shadow Wrestle
Steele to lose some ounces.
“It’s pretty tough to
juggle it all.”
— Steele Starren
TCP: Is your wrestling schedule
hard to juggle with your personal
life?
Starren: My schedule kind of
sucked. Because I have eight-
credit classes for the welding
program. So I’d go at 6 in the
morning to 8, to practice. And
then from 8 to 12 f had class. And
then, I’d go home. I got to eat and
hang out for a little bit and then
w e’d go back at 3 for conditioning.
Then I’d go back to school from 6
to 10 for welding. It’s pretty tough
to juggle it all. I live alone, so it
was like usually the first couple
months I was living with people
and it was easier to like, go home
like hang out with them because
obviously I didn’t go out or
anything because w e’re tired. But
once I started living alone, if was
w ay harder to have a social life.
Jacinto: I mean sometimes
your only friends are the only
people that you really like, which
are your coaches and your
teammates. You’re spending
hours upon hours together so
you guys get really close and you
guys are pretty much like your
guys only friends and like you
trust them with a lot of stuff.
TCP: How do you make sure to
maintain your same weight?
Starren: You have to make sure
to maintain your weight class like
the whole week.
Jacinto: It’s kind of like the
whole system so you just have to
start eating in smaller portions
than you did before. You just start
off at the beginning of the week
with a lot of water and then kind
of taper down your water to the
theclackam asprint.com
end of the week. So, pretty much
you’re just losing all the water
weight that you’re drinking. This
is not a good way to cut away for
a long period of time. I’m just
saying.
TCP: Coach Josh Rhoden has
led the team to several national
championships at CCC. If you
guys had one thing to say about
him, what would you say?
Starren: I’d say that he was
just super inspiring. Like, he
inspired everybody to like, come
down here and really buy into
the program which is like, hard
to do and you’re like waking up
super early and like, it’s really
hard practices and stuff. So he
was really he’s really good talker,
pushing us into doing all the hard
stuff that we didn’t want to do.
Jacinto: Yeah, he was kind of
like that guy in the morning
where he just had his coffee and
was ready to go. He’s the one who
always had the most energy in the
morning and he kind of started
off the practice and just gave us
energy to get through that. I want
to tell him that we love him and
we appreciate everything he has
done for us.
TCP: What are your plans after
CCC?
Starren: I’m not sure atthis point.
My old man owns a construction
company in Kalispell, Montana.
So it’s either I’ll see how I feel
after my years here. And then I’ll
either go to work or transfer to a
four year, like Oregon State.
Jacinto: Probably transfer to
a four year, that’s the plan for
me, just going to any school that
offers.
------------------ June 2022