By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  “We’re Attacking!” yelled Assistant Coach Mark Hesedahl to his team during one of their drills Monday afternoon.

Under the tutelage of former McKay Head Coach and first-year Stayton Eagle Head Coach Stuart Peterson, the Eagles look to succeed in the 2015-2016 wrestling season behind the big three words that described Stayton Wrestling:

Enthusiasm, encouragement and respect.  All part of changing the atmosphere from the practice room on out.

“We like to have fun together,” said Peterson.  “We want to try to have an atmosphere for family that’s kind of what we’re trying to emphasis early.

“We take care about each other, we hold each other accountable (and) we like to be around each other too.”

Over the past weekend, Peterson pointed out; five or six guys went to go watch the Oregon State University Wrestling team take on Rutgers and Utah Valley with Peterson and the Eagle staff.

“We had a lot of fun doing that,” said Peterson.  “Doing stuff as a team, trying to create a family atmosphere, we’re keeping each other engaged up here and doing things to be successful.”

Coming out of the break, the focus went from “Crackle, Crackle, Pop” to pinning their opponents with their arm bars and submissions.

“Our goal this year is to have four pins.  We want to pin our opponent as soon as we get them to the mat.” Said head coach Stuart Peterson to the team.”

The Eagles will come at you this year with their attacking style from the opening whistle, looking for the first takedown and the first points of the match while looking for the pin.

“Statistics say that 70-percent of matches are won by the wrestler who got the first points,” said Peterson.  “We’re going to try to get that first takedown or the first reversal.  Whatever it might be, we’re trying to implement that in practices.”

How are they doing that?  By once a week doing something called “First Takedown” every Wednesday and whoever tallies the most points doing that will be rewarded with a prize.

All for the idea that they want the first points of the match and sophomore Bailey Archuleta can attest to how the team has stepped up to the challenge by the staff.

“I feel like we’ve been working hard and we’ll do good this year,” he said.  “We just have to see (when) the full team gets  there.”

Peterson will also have a goal for the kids off the mat in the classroom.  After all, they are Student-Athletes.

“Off the mat, our goals are to get kids not only successful on the mat, but also in the classroom,” said Peterson.  “So we’re looking at 3.0 GPAs for the team on average.  So hopefully all of them get above a 3.0, that’ll be amazing.”

For Ryan Ninman and Archuleta, they know the importance of the goal as well in the classroom.

“School is number one priority,” said Ninnman.  “Me and Bailey have a second practice after this, so it gets really hard.  I have an hour in between to do a little bit of homework and I got to stay up until midnight to get my homework done.  It’s not easy.

“You have to make time for homework after practice and stuff,” added Archuleta.  “It can get hard sometimes, but you got to stay on top of it.”

As practice wrestled on, their focus’ is on their first meet of the season December 4 at the Gladstone Invitational.  The meet will feature host Glastone, De La Salle North Catholic and Madison High School.

PHOTO GALLERY (PICTURES BY JEREMY MCDONALD)