By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

OREGON CITY, Ore.–  Clackamas Community College Wrestling Head Coach Josh Rhoden did not like how his team finished their matches during the California Challenge Dual in Redding, California despite his team winning three of four dual matches in the tournament.

So, the plan for Thursday’s practice leading up to the Spokane Open Sunday was to finish.

Thirty’s seconds of rapid firing rounds of single-legged and front head locking wrestling matches.

“We’ve done a lot more lines, trying to get our running and cardio up so we can go a full seven minutes and finish matches the way we started them,” said redshirt freshman Tyler Wicken. “I think that’s the biggest part, the one minute drills.

“(It) makes us go longer, go harder because we’re going live for thirty minutes straight almost at a fast pace, that’s a big part of our cardio.”

As practice wrapped up with the same intensity with rapid firing bunch drill, finishers and sprints.  The plan all together was to ingrained in the wrestlers to finish the match.

To finish the match no matter how tired you are. Rhoden wants to emulate a third-round of a match during Thursday’s practice to make sure they can finish.

“(We’re) making sure we score last, making sure we don’t give up any easy scores,” Rhoden said.  “Making sure when we’re tired mentally we’re still in the match, we’re still thinking about our intensity on how we compete the way we want to finish.

“Today was our last hard day as tomorrow is a lighter day,” Rhoden explains the schedule for the rest of the week. “Saturday (is a) travel day and weight cut day, we want to be ready for Sunday so we want to give them a break. “

The strategy has been to this point is to train hard early in the week and lighten up towards the end of the week to heal up.  Resting and healing is crucial right now for the Cougars as a few of the wrestlers are banged up entering this weekend.

“That’s the challenged really in any contact sport is how many reps can we get.  What kind of conditioning  can we do,” said Rhoden. “We got on them yesterday, ‘look if you’re downstairs, we’re not babysitting you.  You got to do your job down there.  It’s your job to get healthy and get back to the (mat) room’.

“Part of it is coaching up the guys who are in there and part of it is letting the other guys know, ‘hey we need you back’.”

With team’s like NAIA’s Montanta State-Western and Montana-State Great Falls on top of North Idaho College to name a few that will compete at the Spokane Open; the goal is to get as many matches in as they can while seeing other schools as CCC look to defend their Tournament Title.

“We’ll see a great mixture of schools that we haven’t seen yet this year and see a different wrestling style,” said Rhoden.  “As we talk to these guys, look get in there as many matches as we can in, finish matches and get as far deep into the tournament as we can.”

As for the coaches, the Spokane Open will give them not just an opportunity to see their depth, but will give the Cougs’ coaches an opportunity to scout North Idaho.

“For us as coaches, it’ll be nice to get a peak over at North Idaho and see what their 165-pounder do, the new guy at (133), how he is going to compete,” said Rhoden.  “Some of those things so we can coach up the guys before December 12^th when we compete against those guys.”

The goal is to finish strong heading into the Thanksgiving Break.

But let’s be honest for a moment, who isn’t thinking about Turkey Day.

“I cannot wait, it’s been a while since I’ve been home,” said Ricken with a smile. “I’m looking forward to hanging out with family, kind of relax and take a break from the wrestling so that’ll be nice.”

As for now, the turkey and stuffing can wait until after Sunday’s Spokane Open in Spokane, Washington.

PHOTO GALLERY (PICTURES BY JEREMY MCDONALD)

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!

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